Briton with Ebola virus flown home

A British healthcare worker who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone – the first Briton to catch the deadly virus – was flown home for treatment on Sunday, as the World Health Organization confirmed another foreign medic, said to be a  Senegalese, had caught the disease.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond authorised the repatriation of the male medical worker – whose identity has not been disclosed – after he was analysed by doctors from Britain and Sierra Leone.

Britain’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer John Watson said final approval for the evacuation was given on the ground in Sierra Leone by a team of physicians who had arrived on a specially equipped Royal Air Force cargo plane.

The Boeing C-17 left the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown bound for Britain at around 1250 GMT.

Upon arrival at the RAF Northolt air base in Britain, he will be transported to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London, the department said.

The hospital has the only high-level isolation unit for treatment of infectious diseases in Britain and has a team of specially trained staff.

“Protective measures will be strictly maintained to minimise the risk of transmission to staff transporting the patient to the UK and healthcare workers treating the individual,” Paul Cosford, director for health protection at state body Public Health England, said in a statement.