An undated photo provided by Save the Children shows an Ebola health care worker wearing protective gear in Sierra Leone.(Photo: Louis Leeson, Save the Children, via AP)
A health worker who just returned to Scotland from Sierra Leone has been diagnosed as the country's first Ebola case, Scottish authorities said Monday.
The Scottish government said on its website that infectious-disease procedures have now been put into effect and the patient has been isolated and is being treated on the Gartnavel Hospital campus in Glasgow.
A spokeswoman for Save the Children told The Independent that the patient is a female nurse who worked at the organization's Ebola hospital in Kerry Town, near the capital of Freetown.
The patient will be transferred to the high-level isolation unit in the Royal Free Hospital in London as soon as possible, the Scottish government statement said.
The patient, who was not identified by the Scottish government either by name of nationality, arrived at Glasgow airport Sunday evening near before midnight. The patient flew to Scotland via Casablanca and London's Heathrow airport.
"The patient was admitted to hospital early in the morning after feeling unwell and was placed into isolation at 7.50 a.m.," the government said. "All possible contacts with the patient are now being investigated and anyone deemed to be at risk will be contacted and closely monitored. However, having been diagnosed in the very early stages of the illness, the risk to others is considered extremely low."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Sunday 19,729 confirmed Ebola cases worldwide since the latest outbreak in late 2013, primarily in the hard-hit West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and almost 7,708 deaths.
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