London: Two patients who recently returned from west Africa tested negative for Ebola in Britain on Wednesday as calls mounted for a review of airport screening procedures following a confirmed case this week.
The two had been tested separately at hospitals in Aberdeen in Scotland and Cornwall in southwest England.
The patients were unconnected to the only diagnosed case in Britain -- Pauline Cafferkey -- a volunteer nurse who contracted the disease while working at an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone.
Cafferkey was being treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London, which has the only isolation ward in Britain specially equipped for Ebola sufferers.
The nurse raised concern about her temperature to airport officials when she returned to London from Sierra Leone via Casablanca in Morocco on Sunday.
Her temperature was taken at London Heathrow Airport but did not raise alarms and she was cleared to take a connecting flight home to Glasgow.
She was eventually diagnosed with Ebola on Monday.
The British government's chief medical officer Sally Davies told ITV television that there would be a review of procedures even though Cafferkey "had no symptoms" at Heathrow.
"Her temperature was within the acceptable range," she said.
A doctor who travelled back to London with Cafferkey had complained of "shambolic" screening procedures in Britain.
No comments :
Post a Comment