Health officials have imposed twice-daily temperature checks and travel restrictions on 58 people who had close contact with Pauline Cafferkey, the Scottish nurse who was diagnosed with Ebola in December and fell ill again last week with complications related to the disease.
Of the 58, 40 were confirmed as having had direct contact with the nurse’s bodily fluids and were offered an Ebola vaccine in line with criteria set out by an expert advisory group that includes Health Protection Scotland, Public Health England and the Scottish government. Of those 40, 25 have accepted the vaccine and a further 15 have either declined it or were unable to receive it due to existing medical conditions.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed that the group who had close contact with Cafferkey since she started to show symptoms of the Ebola-related illness includes healthcare workers, friends, family and community contacts but would not comment on their age range.
The nurse visited a primary school in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, the day before her re-admission to hospital to thank children for their fundraising efforts.
All 58 people will continue to be closely monitored for 21 days since their last contact with Cafferkey. The healthcare workers involved have been asked not to have any direct patient contact during this period.
Cafferkey is being treated at the Royal Free hospital in north London where her condition remains serious.
In a statement, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “All close contacts of Pauline Cafferkey since she became symptomatic have now been identified.
“[The expert group] has agreed that, as a precautionary measure, close contacts who have been established as having had direct contact with any bodily fluids would be offered vaccination. These vaccinations have now taken place.
“It is important to stress once again that there is no risk to the general public. Ebola is not spread through ordinary social contact, such as shaking hands or sitting next to someone. Nor is it spread through airborne particles.”
The vaccine offered was the unlicenced rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, which is currently being trialled in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and has been tested on more than 7,000 people during the recent outbreak of Ebola in Guinea.
On Sunday, Cafferkey’s sister Toni said that doctors missed an opportunity to diagnose that she had fallen ill with an Ebola-related condition up to 24 hours before it was eventually recognised.
Toni Cafferkey said her sister went to an out-of-hours GP clinic at the New Victoria hospital in Glasgow on Monday night where the doctor who assessed her diagnosed a virus and sent her home.
