First Minister Hailing "Quiet Heroism" of NHS Staff Working in West Africa

Scotland's First Minister has hailed the quiet heroism'' of a British nurse who is critically ill with Ebola as she warned the UK is likely to experience more cases of the deadly disease. Nicola Sturgeon said there could bea small number of additional cases'' of Ebola. She made the comments in a statement to MSPs at Holyrood about the case of Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey, 39, who was diagnosed with the virus after returning from voluntary work in Sierra Leone. Ms Cafferkey is currently being treated in isolation at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, where her condition remains critical'', the First Minister said.

Ms Sturgeon said: By far the most effective way of reducing the risk of Ebola in Scotland, and indeed in the rest of the UK, is to halt its spread in west Africa.It is why we are so deeply grateful for the quiet heroism of Pauline Cafferkey and many others like her, from Scotland, the rest of the UK and from many other countries, who make all of us safer by placing themselves at risk. They are not simply helping people in west Africa, although they are certainly doing that, they are also helping people right around the world.We owe it to them, as well as to the wider public, to ensure that the measures we are taking to tackle Ebola here in Scotland are as good as they can be.''

Officials from both Public Health England and Health Protection Scotland are currently reviewing the UK's screening procedures for Ebola, after it emerged Ms Cafferkey had been cleared to fly from London to Glasgow despite her temperature being checked seven times after she landed at Heathrow. The nurse was admitted to an isolation facility at the Brownlee unit in Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow, at 8am on December 29. After a blood sample tested positive for Ebola, she was transferred by military plane to the Royal Free Hospital early the following morning. With more health workers due to return to the UK from Sierra Leone in the next two weeks, Ms Sturgeon pledged: We will keep all of the procedures under review. It is important that we learn lessons from the case of Pauline Cafferkey and that we learn lessons from any other case that might arise.I hope there are no other cases identified in Scotland or the UK but it is likely we will see other cases, a small number of additional cases, and we need to keep learning from the experience of dealing with them.'' Ms Cafferkey had been working with the charity Save the Children at the Ebola Treatment Centre in Kerry Town, Sierra Leone, before she became ill.