Ebola case confirmed in Glasgow hospital

A healthcare worker who has just returned from West Africa has been diagnosed with Ebola and is being treated in hospital in Glasgow.

The woman, who arrived from Sierra Leone on Sunday night, is in isolation at Glasgow's Gartnavel Hospital.
All possible contacts with the case are being investigated, including on flights to Scotland via Heathrow.
UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed that the woman would be taken to a specialist unit in London.
She will be flown from Glasgow and taken to the Royal Free Hospital in north London "as soon as we possibly can," Mr Hunt said.
The hospital has a specialist isolation unit and treated William Pooley, the British nurse who contracted and recovered from Ebola.
Low risk Mr Hunt said the government was doing "absolutely everything it needs to be" to keep the UK safe.
He insisted NHS processes "worked well" after the woman starting exhibiting symptoms.
The health secretary added: "We are also reviewing our procedures and protocols for all the other NHS workers who are working at the moment in Sierra Leone."
Charity Save the Children confirmed the woman was an NHS health worker who was working with them at the Ebola Treatment Centre in Kerry Town, Sierra Leone.
The organisation's humanitarian director, Michael von Bertele, said: "Save the Children is working closely with the UK government, Scottish government and Public Health England to look into the circumstances surrounding the case."
At a news conference in Glasgow, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stressed that the risk to the general public was very low.
She added that the patient was thought to have had contact with only one other person since arriving in the city, but that all passengers on the flights the woman took will be traced.
Ms Sturgeon said: "Apart from other passengers on the flights and obviously the hospital staff since this patient's admittance to hospital, she, the patient is thought to have had contact with only one other person in Scotland since returning to Scotland last night and that person will also be contacted and given appropriate reassurance."

Glasgow Ebola case

Patient flight details - 28 December

• Flight AT596 from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to Casablanca
  
• Flight AT0800 from Casablanca to London Heathrow
  
• Flight BA1478 from London Heathrow to Glasgow, arriving 23:30
  

Reuters

Alisdair MacConachie, of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: "She's being managed in an isolation facility by staff who are comfortable managing patients in such a situation. She herself is quite stable and is not showing any great clinical concern at the minute."

NHS Scotland said infectious diseases procedures had been put into effect at the Brownlee Unit for Infectious Diseases at Gartnavel.
Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids - such as blood, vomit or faeces - of an infected person.
The patient returned to Scotland from Sierra Leone late on Sunday via Casablanca and London Heathrow, arriving into Glasgow Airport on a British Airways flight at about 23:30.
While public health experts have emphasised that the risks are negligible, a telephone helpline has been set up for anyone who was on the BA 1478 Heathrow to Glasgow flight. The number is: 08000 858531
The woman had been admitted to hospital early on Monday morning after feeling unwell and was placed into isolation at 07.50.

 
What are the symptoms?
 

The Ebola virus causes a range of painful and debilitating symptoms

The early symptoms are a sudden fever, muscle pain, fatigue, headache and sore throat.
This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and bleeding - both internal and external - which can be seen in the gums, eyes, nose and in the stools.
Patients tend to die from dehydration and multiple organ failure.

A British Airways spokesman said: "We are working closely with the health authorities in England and Scotland and will offer assistance with any information they require.
"The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority and the risk to people on board that individual flight is extremely low."
Ms Sturgeon has chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government Resilience Committee (SGoRR) and has also spoken to Prime Minister David Cameron.
Mr Hunt is to chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on Monday evening.

The patient had travelled from Freetown in Sierra Leone via Casablanca

Ms Sturgeon said: "Our first thoughts at this time must be with the patient diagnosed with Ebola and their friends and family. I wish them a speedy recovery.
"Scotland has been preparing for this possibility from the beginning of the outbreak in West Africa and I am confident that we are well prepared."
Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England, said: "It is important to be reassured that although a case has been identified, the overall the risk to the public continues to be low.
"We have robust, well-developed and well-tested NHS systems for managing unusual infectious diseases when they arise, supported by a wide range of experts. The UK system was prepared, and reacted as planned, when this case of Ebola was identified."

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Air Asia flight QZ8501 from Indonesia to Singapore missing

An Air Asia flight traveling from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, the company has said.

Indonesian media say more than 160 people were on the Airbus A320-200.
Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24 (23:24 GMT), Malaysia-based Air Asia tweeted.
Malaysia's national carrier Malaysia Airlines has suffered two disasters this year - flights MH370 and MH17 - but Air Asia has never lost a plane.
Flight MH370 disappeared on a flight from Jakarta to Beijing in March with 239 passengers and crew, and MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in July, killing all 298 on board.
Air Asia says that search and rescue operations are under way for the missing aircraft.
The flight had been due to arrive in Singapore at 08:30 (00:30GMT).
There were six foreigners on board the flight, reports say, three from South Korea and one each from the UK Malaysia and Singapore. The rest of the passengers were Indonesian.
An official with the transport ministry, Hadi Mustofa, told local media the plane lost contact over the Java Sea, between the islands of Kalimantan and Java.
He said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact and that the weather had been cloudy.
Air Asia have given few other details.
"At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board, but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes available," a company statement said.
Air Asia has set up an emergency line for family or friends of those who may be on board. The number is +622 129 850 801.

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US lab worker monitored for Ebola

A US laboratory technician is being monitored after possible exposure to the Ebola virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

It said the technician was working at the CDC in Atlanta when an Ebola sample was mistakenly moved from one laboratory to another.
The employee will be monitored for 21 days. A CDC spokeswoman said there was no risk to the public.
The CDC's director said he was "troubled" by the incident.
"I have directed that there be a full review of every aspect of the incident and that CDC take all necessary measures," said Tom Frieden.
"No risk to staff is acceptable, and our efforts to improve lab safety are essential - the safety of our employees is our highest priority."
Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It has killed more than 7,500 people in West Africa, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Monitoring the technician is at least the second time this year the CDC has had to take precautionary measures after a laboratory safety problem.
In June, more than 50 CDC workers took precautionary antibiotics after being potentially exposed to a deadly strain of anthrax.

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French jobless total at new record high

he number of people seeking work in France has risen to a record high, official figures show.
The jobless total rose by 27,400 in November to 3,488,300 - the highest level yet seen.
That means the number looking for a job has risen by 5.8% in the past year.
The claimant count rose in November for the third month in a row, and official government estimates suggest the economy will have grown by just 0.4% this past year.
The jobless figures count the number of people claiming benefits and looking for work with the National Agency for Unemployment.
The alternative international measure of unemployment, devised by the International Labour Organisation and based on a regular survey, says that unemployment in France rose to 2.84 million in the third quarter of the year, giving an unemployment rate of 9.9%.
President Francois Hollande, elected in 2012, made the creation of more jobs a key feature of his election campaign.
He recently stated that if he failed in this aim, he would not stand again in the 2017 presidential elections.
The latest attempt to rouse the economy from stagnation and to create more jobs was announced earlier in December.
The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, and the Economy Minister, Emmanuel Macron, outlined plans that included increasing the number of businesses operating on Sundays, and opening up regulated sectors, such as certain professions, to competition.
It is not obvious this strategy would succeed in reviving the economy, even if implemented fully.
The deregulation plan produced immediate protests by thousands of people in Paris and faces opposition from within the ruling Socialist Party.

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