A British man tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the British government said on Thursday, amid an epidemic that has spread widely across Africa and killed more than 5,000 people.
The BBC reported that the man, who has not been named, would be flown back to Britain for treatment.
The British Foreign Office confirmed that a British citizen in Congo had tested positive for the disease, but did not say if or when he would be evacuated to Britain.
“The U.K. has well-established procedures for dealing with cases like this, and those processes have been activated,” the Foreign Office said in a statement. “Further information will be shared in due course as appropriate. The risk to the U.K. public from Ebola remains low.”
Reuters reported that the patient was a health worker, though that could not be immediately verified. The latest Ebola outbreak in Africa began in Congo in May, and since then, more than 10,000 cases have been recorded in the country, according to the health ministry there.
Outbreaks of Ebola have mostly occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest previous epidemic beginning in 2013 and lasting for more than two years in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Health officials reported late last month that the disease had spread across a broad swath of Africa after cases were identified in Nigeria and Kenya, making a total of five countries affected since the start of the current outbreak. There are no targeted treatments or vaccines for the type of Ebola identified in this outbreak, a species called Bundibugyo, but clinical trials have begun in Congo for possible treatments and for a drug that could prevent infection in people exposed to the virus.
Health experts in Britain said that the wider risk of Ebola to the public was incredibly low because the country was well prepared to care for patients with the virus, and the patient who was said to be flying back would arrive as part of a planned medical evacuation.
Britain has previously dealt with four known cases of Ebola. In 1976, a British scientist was infected in a laboratory accident, and three people who tested positive for the Ebola virus during the 2013-16 outbreak in West Africa were also treated in Britain.
Ebola is passed on primarily through close direct contact with infected bodily fluids, according to the World Health Organization, and transmission is amplified in health care settings where infection control measures are inadequate. Unsafe burial practices involving direct contact with dead bodies can also cause infections. The virus does not spread through particles in the air.
For those who do become infected, Ebola can often prove fatal. The W.H.O. has estimated that the two previously known outbreaks of Bundibugyo killed around 30 percent to 50 percent of those who contracted the disease.
While it is still unclear where the British patient will be treated, Emma Thomson, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Glasgow, noted that the Royal Free Hospital in London had a specialist unit and highly experienced staff.
“The U.K. is extremely well prepared to care for patients with Ebola,” Professor Thomson said in a written statement. “If transferred to the Royal Free Hospital in London, this will be the fourth patient with confirmed Ebola treated in its specialist high-level isolation unit. All three previous patients recovered.”
A spokesperson for the Royal Free Hospital declined to comment and directed all questions to the Foreign Office.
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