What is Ebola and are there cases in the UK?

Concerns of an Ebola outbreak in the UK were briefly raised following a scare at a Scottish hospital.

Precautionary measures were taken after a patient admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) was suspected of having the potentially deadly virus.

It would have been the first case in the UK since an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda in May.

However, the patient tested negative and experts say that the wider risk to the public is very low.

Ebola is a rare but often deadly disease caused by a virus which attacks the body's immune system and organs.

The virus normally infects animals, typically fruit bats, but outbreaks among humans can sometimes start when people eat or handle infected animals.

While it is a highly dangerous pathogen, it is not an airborne virus like flu or Covid.

The virus is typically spread from direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids, contaminated objects or animals.

Individuals usually only become contagious after developing symptoms.

It takes two to 21 days for symptoms to appear. They come on suddenly and start like flu or malaria with fever, headache and tiredness.

As the disease progresses, vomiting and diarrhoea develop and it can lead to organ failure. Some, but not all, patients develop internal and external bleeding.

The outbreak in DR Congo and Uganda has been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization.

Last week France confirmed its first case of Ebola - a doctor who had returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The last confirmed cases of Ebola in the UK were among three health workers returning from West Africa in 2014 and 2015, where they had been treating Ebola patients.

In all three cases they were treated in a high-level isolation unit and made a full recovery. There were no onward cases of transmission.

Nurse Pauline Cafferkey, from Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, fell ill with the disease after arriving back in the UK from Sierra Leone in 2014.

She recovered, but had a relapse and also developed meningitis, seriously affecting her joints and ability to walk, among other issues.

In June 2019 she gave birth to twin boys and said: "This shows that there is life after Ebola."

In November 2022 part of Colchester hospital was deep-cleaned after a suspected Ebola case which later turned out to be negative.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) said it was aware that an individual in Scotland was tested for Ebola as a "precautionary measure".

A spokesperson added: "The test result has now been received and is negative."

PHS said that, together with other NHS health organisations, it had "well established protocols for assessing and testing travellers arriving in the UK from areas affected by Ebola".

These include contact tracing, clinical assessment and precautionary testing.

PHS confirmed the UKHSA Returning Workers Scheme (RWS), which aims to protect and monitor the health of those who may travel from the UK to affected areas for their work, had been activated after it was made aware of the suspected case.

The spokesperson said organisations deploying workers to affected areas where they may be exposed to Ebola through their work should register them with the scheme.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde earlier said there were no ward closures at the QEUH and it confirmed patients and visitors were not being advised to stay away.