British health worker with Ebola flown to UK for specialist care

The health worker landed at RAF Northolt before being taken to a specialist infectious diseases unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, the BBC reported. His identity has not been made public.

The Guardian reported that a humanitarian organisation had sent him to DR Congo to support the Ebola response. An official document seen by Reuters described him as being in a stable condition before the evacuation.

A UK government spokesperson said earlier this week that established procedures for dealing with such cases had been activated and that the risk to the public remained low. Ebola spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, such as blood or vomit.

The Royal Free previously treated three health workers evacuated from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014 and 2015.

The current outbreak, centred on DR Congo, has caused more than 10,000 confirmed cases and more than 5,000 deaths, according to the BBC. Cases have also been confirmed in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria, where a woman who had travelled from Uganda tested positive last month.