British Ebola victim evacuated from Sierra Leone

  • 10 years ago
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

A British healthcare worker who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone - the first Briton to catch the deadly virus - was flown home for treatment on Sunday (August 24), as the World Health Organization confirmed another foreign medic had caught the disease.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond authorized the repatriation of the male medical worker - whose identity has not been disclosed - after he was analyzed by doctors from Britain and Sierra Leone.

The worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever has so far killed at least 1,427 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and neighboring Guinea. Five deaths have been reported in Nigeria.

Britain's Deputy Chief Medical Officer John Watson said final approval for the evacuation was given on the ground in Sierra Leone by a team of physicians who had arrived on a specially equipped Royal Air Force cargo plane.

The Boeing C-17 left the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown bound for