Royal Free hospital in London says Briton’s condition has improved from ‘critically ill’ to ‘serious but stable’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

British nurse Pauline Cafferkey’s condition has improved from “critically ill” to “serious but stable”, the Royal Free hospital in London has said.

Cafferkey was admitted to the Royal Free 10 days ago suffering complications from the Ebola infection she contracted while volunteering at a hospital in west Africa nine months ago.

Her condition deteriorated and last Wednesday the hospital announced that she was “critically ill”.

But on Monday afternoon, the Royal Free said: “We are able to announce that Pauline Cafferkey’s condition has improved to serious but stable.”

Cafferkey is being monitored by leading medical experts in the hospital’s high-level isolation unit, where she spent nearly a month in January during the initial phase of her treatment.

She was flown to the hospital from her Glasgow home on 9 October after falling ill.

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A day before she was admitted to hospital, Cafferkey was well enough to visit Mossneuk primary school in East Kilbride, where she gave a presentation to thank children for their fundraising efforts. There was no suggestion that she appeared ill while she was there.



According to the BBC, relatives said when she first felt ill and saw her GP she described symptoms similar to those of meningitis.



Cafferkey was first diagnosed with Ebola after she had spent four weeks working as a volunteer in Sierra Leone, mostly with Save the Children at its Ebola treatment centre outside Freetown. She began to feel ill when she arrived back at Heathrow airport on 28 December. At that point, she informed staff from Public Health England, who were assessing returnees, but she was cleared to fly on to Glasgow.

The following day she was admitted to the infectious diseases unit of Gartnavel general hospital in Glasgow and on 30 December she was transferred by RAF aircraft to the Royal Free hospital.

On 3 January, the hospital issued a statement saying that Cafferkey was in a critical condition, but her immune system rallied, with the help of intensive medical support. On 24 January she was discharged, saying she was “happy to be alive”.

Her recent deterioration baffled medical experts. Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said it was “frankly staggering”.

He said last week: “I am not aware from the scientific literature of a case where Ebola has been associated with what we can only assume as life-threatening complications after someone has initially recovered, and certainly not so many months after.”



