HEALTH officials have contacted all the passengers who travelled with Ebola sufferer Pauline Cafferkey to Scotland.

 

Last night the Scottish Government confirmed the 70 people who shared the plane to Glasgow with the nurse just hours before she rang the NHS with symptoms of the deadly virus, had been tracked down.

Seven of the eight people sat in the rows immediately next to Ms Cafferkey had been spoken to directly and the other left a message.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stressed the risks to their health were extremely low.

Experts were also hoping to be able to confirm Ebola test results from another Scottish patient who had recently travelled in Africa before morning. The results were expected to be negative, but screening was taking place at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as a precaution.

Ms Cafferkey, 39, who usually works at Blantyre Health Centre, in Lanarkshire, had spent a month volunteering in an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone and had returned home on Sunday when she fell ill. She is now battling the disease in an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London and may be offered plasma from other Ebola survivors to help her fight-off the virus.

The other British nurse who contracted Ebola, William Pooley, is among those who have donated plasma to potentially help other victims. The blood contains antibodies which should help fight the infection.

It has been reported that there are no stocks left of the experimental treatment, ZMapp, which were used on Mr Pooley.

Questions were raised yesterday(tue) about the testing and quarantine arrangements for the group of health workers who returned from Sierra Leone with Ms Cafferkey.

Dr Martin Deahl, a consultant psychiatrist from Shropshire who sat next to Ms Cafferkey on a flight, told Sky News: "The thing that surprised most of us is that Public Health England suggested that we could go home from the airport by any way we wanted on public transport, so the underground, or in Pauline's case, the flight to Glasgow.

"Once we got home, we were not to use public transport or go to crowded places."

He added: "If there had been alternative arrangements for Pauline a lot of the people on that flight to Glasgow would not be going through the anxiety and stress that they are at the moment."

Dr Deahl also described the screening process the workers faced at Heathrow as "a bit chaotic". He said the airport seemed "inadequately prepared" to carry out the "so-called health check" the group needed. "We were queuing for over an hour in very close proximity in this small space so in that sense, everybody came close to Pauline," he said.

Chief Medical Officer in England Professor Dame Sally Davies said the nurse had her temperature taken seven times at Heathrow before she flew on and the correct protocols had been followed. However, procedures will be reviewed.

Save the Children, the charity Ms Cafferkey had been working with in Sierra Leone, also said they had robust and strict protocols in place to protect their staff. Their statement said: "These are also constantly reviewed and monitored on site to ensure the highest standards of safety and prevention of infection control for all staff working at the Kerry Town Treatment Centre. Save the Children also asks staff to be careful outside of the treatment centre, where exposure to risks can be less obvious, and respect guidance regarding having no direct body contact and maintaining a safe distance. Save the Children maintains confidence in both our equipment and our protocols, as long as they are followed properly."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told a press conference in Glasgow yesterday that Ms Cafferkey was "doing as well as can be expected in the circumstances". She also said: "I will take the opportunity, I'm sure on behalf of everyone in the country, of wishing her all the best and wishing her that speedy recovery."

Ms Cafferkey, a nurse for 16 years, became the first Ebola case to be diagnosed in the UK after she called the NHS at 7.50am on Monday complaining of feeling unwell and having a raised temperature. She was taken by specialist ambulance to the Glasgow's Brownlee Unit for Infectious Diseases on the Gartnavel Hospital campus. She was then transferred inside a quarantine tent by military plane to RAF Northolt.

Her local MP Tom Greatrex said: "The thoughts and prayers of everybody in Blantyre will be with Pauline as she begins treatment in London.

"Her volunteering for Save the Children in Sierra Leone is entirely typical of many in the health service who put others first."

However, Katie Hopkins, a former contestant on the BBC show The Apprentice, was branded vile and racist after she made jibes about Ms Cafferkey being treated in London.

In her post Ms Hopkins wrote: 'Glaswegian ebola patient moved to London's Royal Free Hospital. Not so independent when it matters most are we jocksville?'

She added: 'Little sweaty jocks, sending us Ebola bombs in the form of sweaty Glaswegians just isn't cricket.'

Mr Greatex said the remarks were "truly beneath contempt".

In Cornwall a third female patient is being screened for possible Ebola symptoms.