Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey transferred to London hospital isolation unit following new scare

A Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola while volunteering in Sierra Leonne has been flown from Glasgow to an isolation ward at London's Royal Free Hospital because she may have the virus again.

Pauline Cafferkey was the first person to be diagnosed with the disease in the UK after returning from the region which saw an epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa. She spent nearly a month in isolation at the London hospital after contracting the virus in December 2104.

Greater Glasgow Health Board said the Ebola virus is once again present in Cafferkey, but said it was left over from the original infection and is not thought to be infectious. The 39-year-old has been moved back to the isolation unit at Royal Free Hospital as a precaution.

A Royal Free Hospital spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Pauline Cafferkey was transferred from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow to the Royal Free London hospital in the early hours of this morning due to an unusual late complication of her previous infection by the Ebola virus.

"She will now be treated in isolation in the hospital's high-level isolation unit under nationally agreed guidelines. The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic, so the risk to the general public remains low and the NHS has well-established and practised infection control procedures in place."

Professor Paul Cosford, medical director at Public Health England, added: "She was transported in a military aircraft under the supervision of experts. The Scottish health authorities will be following up on a small number of close contacts of Pauline's as a precaution."

The three West African countries at the heart of the epidemic - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - recently had their first week with no new cases reported for the first time since March 2014, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Update: Pauline Cafferkey is confirmed to be in a "serious condition" following complications of the Ebola virus, the Royal Free Hospital said.