UK

Scottish nurse makes full recovery from Ebola

Pauline Cafferkey was first person to be diagnosed with the virus on British soil

Bruce Aylward, assistant director general for the Ebola operational response of the World Health Organization (WHO), gives the media an update on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva on January 23rd. Photograph: Salvatore Di Nolfi
Bruce Aylward, assistant director general for the Ebola operational response of the World Health Organization (WHO), gives the media an update on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva on January 23rd. Photograph: Salvatore Di Nolfi
Sat Jan 24 2015 - 20:12

A Scottish nurse who had been critically ill with Ebola after working in Sierra Leone has been discharged from a London hospital after making a full recovery.

Pauline Cafferkey was admitted to the Royal Free Hospital in north London on December 30th after falling ill on her return from Sierra Leone, where she had been working for the charity Save the Children at a treatment centre outside the capital, Freetown.

Ms Cafferkey was the first person to have been diagnosed with Ebola on British soil.

“I am just happy to be alive,” she said in a statement released via the hospital.

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“I still don’t feel 100 per cent, I feel quite weak, but I’m looking forward to going home. I want to say a big thank you to the staff who treated me - they were amazing.”

The Royal Free, Britain's main centre for Ebola cases, also successfully treated British aid worker William Pooley who contracted the virus in West Africa.

Reuters