Ebola detected again in Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34483584

Ebola detected again in Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey

Ebola has been detected in a Scottish nurse who first contracted the virus in December last year.

Greater Glasgow health board has confirmed that the virus is present in Pauline Cafferkey but said it was left over from the original infection. It is not thought to be contagious.
The 39-year-old has been flown back to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

She contracted the virus while helping to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone.

Ms Cafferkey spent almost a month in an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital at the beginning of the year after contracting the virus in December 2014.
There is not yet any information about her condition, but government sources have described her transfer to the specialist unit as a "highly precautionary process".

They have also said there are currently no significant risks to public health.

(continued, no significant risk now she's quarantined being treated by spacesuits...)

[rainbow]

Fantastic news!

[mistermack]

This might be more common than they realise.

Ebola has had a habit of popping up when everybody thought it was gone, in remote parts of Africa.

It might be that it has a rare ability to live on in a dormant fashion in some people, and then to re-emerge as a new outbreak.

It was accepted ages ago that semen can still be infectious, months after the patient is apparently virus-free. This proves that it CAN live on. Under normal circumstances, once a person has had ebola, their immune system would attack the virus, if it tried to re-infect the person. How it escapes this process in semen I don't know. But you could end up with a strain of ebola that doesn't kill every victim, but uses the survivors as carriers to spread the new strain. That would be really nasty.

They don't say what this nurse is suffering from. Is it that the virus is still active, or is it organ failure due to the original infection? It will be interesting to find out.

[Seth]

This might be more common than they realise.

Ebola has had a habit of popping up when everybody thought it was gone, in remote parts of Africa.

It might be that it has a rare ability to live on in a dormant fashion in some people, and then to re-emerge as a new outbreak.

It was accepted ages ago that semen can still be infectious, months after the patient is apparently virus-free. This proves that it CAN live on. Under normal circumstances, once a person has had ebola, their immune system would attack the virus, if it tried to re-infect the person. How it escapes this process in semen I don't know. But you could end up with a strain of ebola that doesn't kill every victim, but uses the survivors as carriers to spread the new strain. That would be really nasty.

They don't say what this nurse is suffering from. Is it that the virus is still active, or is it organ failure due to the original infection? It will be interesting to find out.

Can you say "Typhoid Mary?"

[cronus]

There's at least another ten thousand typhoid marys ready to blow, out there somewhere.

[mistermack]

There's at least another ten thousand typhoid marys ready to blow, out there somewhere.

They can blow someone else.

I've suddenly lost the urge.

[laklak]

Just proves the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished. I'm completely self-centered, so I stand exactly zero chance of contracting Ebola while helping out some sick fuck.

[mistermack]

Pauline Cafferkey was under investigation originally for suspicion that she lied about how she felt, and hid her symptoms when she returned to Britain. She failed seven temperature checks, but still was allowed to fly on from London to Scotland mixing with a planeful of passengers.
Some nurses and doctors who were involved in her check in London were also under investigation for allegedly turning a blind eye to her condition.

I don't know what the result of that inquiry was. But it's ironic that Cafferkey's sister is raging about the out-of-hours service sending her home initially, when she contacted them this time, feeling unwell.
They apparently suspected that she'd "picked up a virus".