A doctor who travelled alongside British nurse Pauline Cafferkey on her flight from Sierra Leone has condemned the 'shambolic' handling of her case, warning it could facilitate the spread of Ebola. Dr Martin Deahl, who was among around 30 NHS volunteers returning to Heathrow on Sunday, said staff conducting Ebola tests 'didn't seem to know what they were doing' and ran out of testing kits.
Dr Deahl also criticised Public Health England's (PHE) travel guidelines, which permit 'high risk' medics returning from Ebola-affected regions to use public transport to reach home, but then advise them to avoid planes, trains and buses for 21 days. He described the rules as 'illogical' and said they had left fellow passengers on the Glasgow flight 'scared witless'.
Authorities are now urgently tracing 70 passengers from the internal flight and 133 from the Casablanca-to-London leg. Passengers on the plane will be monitored by NHS officials via phone. Meanwhile, it has emerged that public health officials advised the Government that there is no need to disinfect or decontaminate any environment Ms Cafferkey came into contact with on her journey home.
A second patient has arrived at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for Ebola testing. The unnamed female hill-walker recently returned from West Africa and had been staying at a youth hostel in the Highlands. She was taken to hospital by ambulance on Tuesday evening.
Ms Cafferkey, a Scottish nurse who worked for Save the Children in Sierra Leone, is now in an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London after being flown from Glasgow by the RAF. She may receive plasma from recovered patients, including British nurse Will Pooley, as part of a European network to combat the virus.
