British Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey declared free of virus and discharged from hospital

The Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola on an aid mission to Sierra Leone has been discharged from hospital after being declared free of the virus.

Pauline Cafferkey said she was “happy to be alive” and praised staff at London’s Royal Free Hospital, who she said saved her life.

Only three weeks ago her condition was described as critical.

Ms Cafferkey, 39, from Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, was diagnosed with Ebola after returning to Glasgow from Sierra Leone in December.

Pauline Cafferkey flew out to west Africa in November last year

She was one of the first wave of NHS volunteers, flown out to West Africa in November, to join the fight against the Ebola outbreak, and worked at a Save the Children treatment centre in Kerry Town.

After being admitted to Glasgow’s Gartnavel Hospital on 29 December, she was transferred to the Royal Free’s high level isolation unit (HLIU), where she has been treated for more than three weeks.

Speaking after leaving hospital today she said: “I am just happy to be alive.”

She told the BBC that in the first few days of the illness she felt “very well” and “couldn’t understand all the fuss”. However after her condition declined there was a moment when she felt like giving up, she added. "There was a point, which I remember clearly. I do remember saying: 'That's it, I've had enough'," she said.
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