British doctor who has tested positive for Ebola after working in DR Congo arrives back in the UK for treatment at London hospital

British doctor who has tested positive for Ebola after working in DR Congo arrives back in the UK for treatment at London hospital A British doctor who tested positive for Ebola after working in the Democratic Republic of Congo has returned to the UK for specialist treatment. After a medical evacuation flight, the patient arrived in an ambulance convoy at London's Royal Free Hospital on Thursday evening. The doctor, said to be in a stable condition, has been taken to the hospital's infectious disease unit for treatment. It is the first time a Briton has tested positive for Ebola in the current outbreak, which has killed more than 5,000 and infected more than 10,000, mostly in DR Congo. There have only been four confirmed cases of the virus ever in Britain, three involving health workers during an outbreak in west Africa in 2014 and 2015 and one after a needle incident in a laboratory in 1976. The latest outbreak has been driven by the Bundibugyo strain, which can kill up to 50 per cent of those infected. There is currently no vaccine for the deadly strain but scientists have begun clinical trials for a jab. Ebola symptoms include a flu-like fever, headache, muscle pain, vomiting and diarrhoea before progressing to internal bleeding, organ failure and often death. An ambulance convoy carrying a British doctor who tested positive for ebola after working in the DR Congo arrived at London's Royal Free Hospital on Thursday evening Police stood guard outside the hospital as the patient arrived at the infectious disease unit It spreads through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of someone suffering from or the body of someone who has died of the virus. And it can be passed through contact with contaminated surfaces. Professor Emma Thomson, director of the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, said: 'The UK is extremely well prepared to care for patients with Ebola. 'Although Bundibugyo virus, the cause of the current outbreak, can cause severe disease and is highly infectious through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, the Royal Free has state-of-the-art isolation facilities and highly experienced clinical teams. 'Strict protocols are in place to protect healthcare workers and prevent onward transmission. The risk to the wider UK public is extremely low.' The Royal Free's infectious disease unit includes a tent with controlled ventilation that allows NHS staff to care for patients. All air leaving the unit is cleaned to minimise the risk to those in the hospital. The current Ebola outbreak was detected in May in the DRC and has been largely confined to African nations including Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria. However patients from elsewhere in Europe have also been infected. In Britain, a suspected Ebola case led to the precautionary shutdown of part of Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in June. The patient later tested negative. The following month, a suspected Ebola case was being monitored at a London hospital after a humanitarian worker was 'exposed' to the disease in the DRC. Just last week, however, Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said the 'geographic extension of this outbreak is unprecedented' and warned that health officials worldwide must be prepared. 'We want all countries to know that they are not safe if they don't take appropriate measures,' he said. 'Each country, not only in the African region, but all continents, must now increase the preparedness level and the possibility for treatment.' An Ebola healthcare worker wears protective equipment in Democratic Republic of the Congo Dr Kaseya compared the current situation to countries thinking they would not be affected by Covid before the pandemic struck. 'We don't want to see the UK and other countries become a hotspot,' he added. Experts said that Britain could be at risk of the virus arriving undetected for weeks – and that Dr Kaseya is 'right to be concerned'. 'There have been several cases already in Europe from this epidemic,' said Dr Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia. Professor Hunter said transmission could occur from an imported case of the virus at any time, although he stressed that this is 'pretty rare'. 'The fact is that Ebola is not that transmissible and usually requires close contact with a case or their body fluids,' he continued. 'Furthermore, the infectiousness of a case increases as the case becomes more ill and especially as they approach death.' Professor Hunter said patients become most infectious when they are seriously ill and said that, in Britain, they would be identified and hospitalised before infecting large numbers of people. He added that 'although nothing is impossible', the risk that the UK 'would become a hotspot of Ebola remains very low'. Dr Charlotte Houldcroft, assistant professor of virus genomics at the University of Cambridge, said Ebola could reach Britain subtly. This is because infected travellers can carry the virus for three weeks before symptoms appear. 'The UK is at risk from any infectious disease with a long incubation period,' she said. 'People can be exposed abroad, travel feeling well, but be incubating an infection that they fall ill with once back in the UK. 'Ebola infections normally incubate for eight to ten days, but it can be as long as 21 days before an infected person shows symptoms. 'That's a wide window for travellers to fly home not knowing they are sick.' However, Dr Houldcroft said Britain would be prepared to deal with any cases, saying that 'this isn't a situation like Covid'. Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, warned last week that Britain is 'not safe' from the 'unprecedented' Ebola outbreak 'Ebola typically spreads a bit more slowly than [Covid], giving measures like contact tracing time to catch up with suspected cases.' Sir Andrew Pollard, a professor of infection and immunity at the University of Oxford, said Dr Kaseya is 'right that we should all be concerned'. But he agreed with Dr Houldcroft that the UK would be well equipped to identify cases. The origin of the Bundibugyo strain is unknown but some researchers believe it was passed on to humans by fruit bats. It was first recorded in 2007 and takes its name from the area of western Uganda where it was found. A second outbreak started in the DR Congo in 2012 but both epidemics were smaller, with estimates suggesting around 200 cases and 66 deaths. The current outbreak is the largest in the DR Congo's history and the second-largest ever, behind a major spread between 2014 and 2016 that caused more than 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths across West Africa. A Foreign Office spokesman said today: 'A British citizen currently in the DRC has tested positive for Ebola. 'The risk to the UK public from Ebola remains low.' Dr Damien Tully, an expert in infectious disease from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: 'The infection of a British healthcare worker with Ebola is deeply concerning, but it is not entirely unexpected. 'Healthcare workers are on the front line of these outbreaks, often treating severely ill patients under extremely challenging conditions. Even with rigorous protective measures, accidental exposures can occur. 'However, it does not suggest that the virus has become more transmissible or that the threat to the UK has increased. 'Unlike respiratory viruses such as Covid-19 and influenza, that can spread through the air, Ebola is transmitted primarily through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, and people are not generally infectious until they develop symptoms. 'For the UK public, the risk from this planned medical evacuation is extremely low.'