Briton with Ebola evacuated to UK

A 29-year-old British man who contracted Ebola while working as a nurse in Sierra Leone is being treated in an isolation unit at a London hospital.

The Royal Free Hospital in London

A British nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone is being treated at a London hospital. (AAP)

A British volunteer nurse who contracted deadly Ebola in Sierra Leone is being treated at a specialist hospital after being evacuated to the UK.

He was named as William Pooley, 29, by Dr Robert Garry, an American scientist who worked at the same hospital as him in the west Africa country.

It is the first confirmed case of a Briton contracting the virus during the recent outbreak.

There is no cure for Ebola and outbreaks have a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent.

Pooley tested positive for Ebola after treating patients suffering from the virus at Kenema Government Hospital (KGH) in the south-east of Sierra Leone.

He was airlifted to the UK on a specially equipped C17 Royal Air Force jet, landing at RAF Northolt in west London on Sunday night.

He was then transported to the UK's only high level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London.

The Department of Health said he was not "seriously unwell". Health chiefs insisted that the risk to the British public from Ebola is "very low".

Pooley was working at a hospice in the capital Freetown but moved to Kenema when he heard that other healthcare workers at KGH had died from Ebola.

His bed at the Royal Free Hospital is surrounded by a specially designed tent with its own controlled ventilation system. Only specialist medical staff are allowed inside the unit.

Professor John Watson, deputy chief medical officer, insisted that "the overall risk to the public in the UK remains very low".


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