Ebola parents face another agonising wait for all-clear
PARENTS of pupils visited at school by ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey face ten more days of uncertainty, an expert has said.
The warning came as health chiefs disclosed that seven more people may be offered vaccination against the virus after they came into close contact with the health worker.
This takes the number offered vaccination to 65.
Education chiefs have taken advice from environmental health experts and the school visited by Miss Cafferkey will be given a hygiene clean before it reopens on Monday.
A spokesman for Health Protection Scotland said it was difficult to say why the number of close contacts had gone up, adding: ‘Sometimes more contacts come forward.’
The spokesman said it was ‘unlikely’ this number would increase significantly.
Close contacts are described as ‘people involved in Miss Cafferkey’s personal or clinical care’.
So far, 26 people of them have chosen to be vaccinated. Some of the 65 have been unable to take the vaccine because of prior medical conditions.
Miss Ca ffer key, who remains critically ill after the virus suddenly returned, visited Mossneuk Primary School in East Kilbride only hours before she felt ill.
She had gone to the school on October 5 to talk to P4-7s about the deadly disease she contracted during a volunteer trip to Sierra Leone last year.
That night she presented herself at a hospital in Glasgow and was sent home before being readmitted the next day then airlifted to the London’s Royal Free Hospital.
The nurse remains in a high-level isolation unit and on Wednesday her condition was downgraded from serious to critical.
Dr Ben Neuman, who previously called for pupils at Mossneuk Primary to be vaccinated, said parents will not know their children are safe until the 21- day incubation period is over.
The virology lecturer at Reading University said the risk of infection is ‘ really small’, but added: ‘I have kids, it would worry me too.
‘A parent should watch them for fever, listlessness and if it gets worse take them to a GP. If you haven’t seen anything in 21 days there is no concern of ebola.
‘Parents are going to worry. Know what to look for and worry productively.’
Denise Cherry, the mother of seven-year-old twin boys who attended the school talk, said: ‘It will be a big sigh of relief after 21 days.
‘We have passed a week and a half now. I’m counting it down. It’s a worry. There is nothing we can do, it has happened now.’
Gayle Wallace, a 40-yearold receptionist whose son was not in the assembly but attends the school, said: ‘I don’t trust it when people say it’s not airborne. It’s quite serious.’
Another mother, who asked not to be named, said she is considering keeping her children off school.
She added: ‘ I’m thinking about waiting for 21 days to pass before taking the kids back. I’m worried about it.’
A spokesman for South Lanarkshire Council said a small number of parents have expressed concern about Miss Cafferkey’s visit to the school.
Jim Gilhooly, executive director of education resources, said: ‘ We have been assured that Miss Cafferkey’s illness cannot be spread through ordinary social contact, and we have reassured parents and carers of this.
‘NHS Lanarkshire attended the school on Friday, October 9 to reassure anyone with concerns.’
He added: ‘ As is normal practice the school will have a hygiene clean before it reopens on Monday after the October break.
‘The advice from environmental health specialists is that this level of cleaning is appropriate.’
There has been no further update on Miss Cafferkey’s condition for two days.
In a statement on Wednesday the Royal Free said: ‘We are sad to announce that Pauline Cafferkey’s condition has deteriorated and she is now critically ill.’
‘I’m counting the days’