UK Anti-Ebola Efforts Highlighted

Doctors, aid workers and military leaders are to mark the UK contribution to tackling the Ebola crisis at a conference today.

The work of charities and volunteers who have travelled to west Africa will be highlighted at the Department for International Development (DFID) event in East Kilbride.

Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael, International Development Minister Baroness Northover and Alasdair Kerr, a staff nurse at Glasgow Royal Infirmary who has recently returned from Sierra Leone, will address the conference, which will also include a live link to people currently working in Sierra Leone.

Around 10,000 people have died since the outbreak of the disease last year, according to figures from the World Health Organisation.

Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have been the worst affected countries where more than 24,000 confirmed and suspected cases have been reported.

Recently, the epidemic has shown signs of slowing down and Liberia released its last Ebola patient from a treatment centre last week.

No British nationals have died from the disease but nurses Pauline Cafferkey and Will Pooley both needed critical care for the highly-contagious disease after contracting it while treating patients in Sierra Leone last year.

A female military healthcare worker is currently being treated for the disease and was flown back to the UK last week after she tested positive for Ebola.

The woman is being treated in a high-level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital (RFH) in London after being flown back to the UK on Thursday from Sierra Leone in a RAF plane.

Up to 700 British military personnel have been working in the west African country to aid the Ebola crisis.

DFID said UK-led efforts mean there are now resources to track down the disease across Sierra Leone and stop it spreading further.