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British Ebola Patient Arrives at London Hospital


Police escort a Royal Armed Forces (RAF) ambulance carrying a British man infected with the Ebola virus after he was flown home on a C17 plane from Sierra Leone, at Northolt air base outside London, August 24, 2014.
Police escort a Royal Armed Forces (RAF) ambulance carrying a British man infected with the Ebola virus after he was flown home on a C17 plane from Sierra Leone, at Northolt air base outside London, August 24, 2014.

The first British citizen to contract the Ebola virus has arrived at a London hospital for treatment.

The unidentified male health care worker contracted the virus in Sierra Leone.

He was evacuated from the West African country Sunday and flown in a specially equipped military aircraft to a British airbase. From there he was transported in a special military ambulance to Britain's only Ebola isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) says one of its health care workers in Sierra Leone has also contracted the virus. WHO said Sunday it is working to ensure the worker receives the best care possible, including the option of medical evacuation to another care facility, if necessary.

The U.N. agency did not identify the nationality of the worker, but media reports described the worker as Senegalese.

The World Health Organization reports 1,427 people have died from the Ebola virus during the current outbreak. It also said that as of Friday there were 2,615 confirmed cases in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

On Sunday, the health minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo said two Ebola deaths have been confirmed in the Central African country.

Felix Kabange Numbi said samples from two of eight people in his country tested positive for the virus.

Two American aid workers infected with Ebola in Liberia and brought back to the U.S. have recovered. Referring to one of those cases on Friday, WHO tweeted "Kent Brantly is not the only person who has recovered from Ebola.” The Tweet included a link to a video with three Ebola survivors in Africa.

Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected person.

The disease causes fever, vomiting, diarrhea and uncontrollable bleeding through bodily openings, including the eyes, ears and nose. Previous outbreaks have had a death rate of up to 90 percent, but the death rate in the current epidemic is closer to 50 percent.

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