Ebola nurse ‘serious’ after deadly virus returns

Pauline Cafferkey is back in hospital after suffering an “unusual late complication” almost a year after her original recovery

A Scottish nurse who contracted the Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone was last night said to be in a “serious condition” in hospital, after symptoms of the deadlydisease returned almost ayear on from her apparent recovery.

Doctors said that Pauline Cafferkey, 39, had suffered an “unusual late complication” related to her previous infection and had been flown from Glasgow to London in a military aircraft in the early hours of Friday morning.

The nurse is currently being treated in a special isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, where less than nine months ago she successfully fought off the virus with the help of experimental drugs and blood plasma taken from another British Ebola survivor, William Pooley.

It is believed to be only the second time that Ebola has “reactivated” in a person who previously contracted the virus. In a statement, the Royal Free Hospital said the risk to the general public was “low” as the virus can only be transmitted through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are displaying symptoms.

Ms Cafferkey, from South Lanarkshire, said recently she had no regrets about travelling to Sierra Leone, where she caught the virus while working at a Save the Children treatment centre in Kerry Town.

“Outwardly, I just tried to be stoical about everything