Dr Michael Jacobs from the Royal Free London, where Will Pooley and Pauline Cafferkey were treated, among those to receive honours

The role of British doctors, scientists and advisors in developing treatments that helped end the Ebola epidemic that killed 11,000 people worldwide has been recognised in the New Year honours list.

Dr Michael Jacobs, the consultant who treated three Britons with the disease, said he was “honoured and humbled” to receive a knighthood for his services to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.

The award recognises his role working with the world’s very few experts in haemorrhagic fevers. Jacobs, clinical lead in infectious diseases at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, successfully treated nurses Pauline Cafferkey and Will Pooley, and army reservist Anna Cross, after they contracted Ebola while volunteering in Sierra Leone, the country worst hit by the epidemic.

Cafferkey, who Jacobs feared at one point might not survive, fell ill again in October with meningitis caused by the deadly virus and was readmitted to the Royal Free.

Jacobs worked closely with doctors in the Emory hospital, Dallas, where US victims were treated and with specialists in Spain, Germany and Italy, sharing information on experimental treatments.

“This has been a devastating two years for Ebola-affected countries in west Africa,” said Jacobs. “The patients who we cared for at the Royal Free London exemplify the extraordinary courage and humanity of everyone who went to west Africa to help with the international aid effort.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Will Pooley was one of the victims of Ebola treated by Dr Jacobs. Photograph: Michael Duff

“We are privileged and proud to have played a small part in the NHS humanitarian response to this medical emergency.”

Robin Pooley, Will’s father, said their family would be “forever grateful” to Jacobs and his team at the Royal Free for his son’s recovery. He said: “We were hugely impressed by the thoroughness, the skill, the dedication and the human warmth that we all experienced on our many visits to the unit and we are delighted with they should be recognised in such a way.”

The UK, which led the international response to the Ebola crisis, sent 150 staff from Public Health England (PHE), to Sierra Leone to run three new laboratories there. Four of them were awarded honours. Around 250 staff from the Department for International Development (DfId), more than 1,5000 military personal and 150 NHS volunteers were also involved in the UK’s response.

New Year's honours 2016: the full list Read more

Tim Brooks, head of PHE’s rare and imported pathogens laboratory (Ripl), responsible for establishing the state-of-the-art diagnostic laboratories in Sierra Leone, is awarded a CBE. The labs established by the ex-army doctor were credited with saving many lives and helping to control the epidemic, which swept Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Meanwhile, Ripl, which he established with his team and the London and Liverpool Tropical Disease Units, screened more than 460 travellers for possible Ebola at centres in London, Edinburgh and Newcastle.

The three other PHE experts honoured include Prof Paul Cosford, PHE’s director for health protection and medical director, who led its contribution to the international response to Ebola in west Africa and in Britain. Cosford is made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Neil Bentley, head of PHE’s microbiology technical services, who spent months in remote locations in Sierra Leone, visiting community centres to reduce testing time and train others in diagnostics, receives an OBE.

Dr Jenny Harries, PHE’s regional director for the south of England, who led the Ebola screening programme at UK main points of entry, also receives an OBE. Harries works with UK Border Force and others to ensure returning workers from affected areas are monitored for 21 days to ensure they remain well.

Christopher Bulstrode, emeritus professor at Green Templeton College, Oxford, and volunteer with the charity Doctors of the World, receives a CBE for his part in the Ebola response.

Three members of the DfId team in Sierra Leone were honoured in the New Year list.

Kate Foster, senior humanitarian adviser for DfId, one of two department advisors on the ground who received OBEs, was described as the “lynchpin of the UK team in Freetown” by the department. Foster praised her team as she spoke about the stark reality of life in the field during the unprecedented epidemic.



“It was a bit like a giant game of whack a mole, but one where life and death was really dependent on your every reaction” said Foster, 39.

While it was nice to be recognised, there were “a lot of people working incredibly hard, who also deserve such recognition”, said Foster. “Though I’m sure my parents will be excited.”

Edward Davis, education advisor for DfId, credited with helping achieve a 98% effective burial rate in Sierra Leone, which helped halt a key driver of transmission in the country, also receives an OBE, as does Grace Jackson, Sierra Leone programme manager at DfId.

Shaun Edgerley, adviser to the conflict, humanitarian and security operations team, which is contracted by DfId, and Helen Richards and Michael George Robson – both district advisers to the team – receive OBEs for services to the Ebola crisis response, along with John William Raine, head of Port Loko district Ebola response centre in Sierra Leone, Dr Gillian Margaret Ring of the Ministry of Defence and Victoria Parkinson, a private sector advisor at the African Governance Initiative, a charity founded by Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister.

Prof William John Edmunds of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine receives an OBE, and an MBE is awarded to Jonathan Barden for humanitarian services to the Ebola response, through the charity UK-Med.

In total, 1,196 people have received an award, 2.5% of them for services to science and technology.

This year sees three new recipients of the Order of Merit (OM) award, which is the personal gift of the Queen, all within the fields of science and technology. The OM goes to Lord Darzi, for medicine, Prof Dame Ann Dowling, for mechanical engineering, and Sir James Dyson, for his work in industrial design. Awarded to individuals for great achievement in the arts, learning, literature and science, the OM is limited to 24 living recipients. Previous recipients include Sir Winston Churchill and Florence Nightingale.

Georgina Mace, professor of biodiversity and ecosystems and director of the centre for biodiversity and environment research at University College, London, receives a DBE, as does Prof Henrietta Moore, director of the Institute for Global Prosperity. David MacKay, chief scientific advisor at the Department of Energy and Climate Change and regius professor of engineering, Cambridge University engineering department, is awarded a knighthood.