RAF plane evacuating Briton
A Senegalese epidemiologist has become the first World Health Organisation workers to test positive for the deadly Ebola Virus Disease wreaking havoc in West Africa.
The unnamed official was based in Kailahun district tracing Ebola cases.
A statement from the WHO says the organisation will ensure he receives "the best care possible including the option of medical evacuation to another care facility if necessary".
He is one of over 400 people the agency and its Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) partners have deployed in the region in response to the outbreak, since it began in March.
This comes a day after a British volunteer nurse also tested positive for Ebola. He had been working at the Kenema Government Hospital in the last three months with one colleague describing him as "affable and very helpful and hardworking".
According to a statement from the UK Department of Health he is not "currently seriously unwell" and the decision to evacuate him followed "clinical advice".
He was flown from Lungi airport in a specially equipped C17 Royal Air Force plane to RAF Northolt in the UK.
"Upon arrival in the UK, the patient will be transported to an isolation unit at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust" the statement says.
Since the current outbreak in March more than 225 health workers have fallen ill and nearly 130 have died of the disease.
WHO says international health workers are an important part of the Ebola response because it comes after years of conflict in which "the area of West Africa most affected by this disease suffered from a weakened and fragile health system with a shortage of health workers".
(C) Politico Online 24/08/14
