UK Avoids Ebola Scare as Glasgow Patient Tests Negative

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A patient who was being tested for Ebola at a hospital in Glasgow has tested negative, Scottish health authorities confirmed, ending concerns over what could have become the United Kingdom's (UK) first Ebola case since the latest outbreak in Central Africa.

The patient was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in the early hours of Tuesday, prompting precautionary measures while laboratory testing was carried out.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) said the individual had been tested for Ebola as a precaution after arriving from an area affected by the outbreak.

"The test result has now been received and is negative," a PHS spokesperson said.

The announcement came after health officials initially stressed that there were no confirmed Ebola cases in Scotland while the patient was undergoing assessment.

As reported by The Guardian, the suspected case prompted Scottish health authorities to work closely with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to assess potential travel-related risks. Officials emphasized that the likelihood of Ebola entering the UK remains low and that the National Health Service has established procedures to identify and safely manage suspected cases.

PHS said NHS boards across Scotland follow well-established protocols for assessing travellers arriving from Ebola-affected countries, including clinical assessment, precautionary testing, and contact tracing when necessary.

The agency also confirmed that the UKHSA Returning Workers Scheme, which monitors the health of people travelling to Ebola-affected regions for work, had been activated after the suspected case emerged. Organizations sending personnel to outbreak areas are encouraged to register workers under the scheme.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said there were no ward closures at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and advised that patients and visitors could continue attending the facility as normal.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Uganda was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in May. Nearly 700 confirmed infections have been reported, with about 138 deaths, including fatalities in Uganda.

The UK government has committed up to £21 million to support Ebola response efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, helping protect frontline healthcare workers and vulnerable communities.

According to the BBC, the negative test means the UK has once again avoided a confirmed Ebola case. The last confirmed infections in the country occurred in 2014 and 2015, when healthcare workers returned from West Africa during the region's major Ebola epidemic.

One of those patients, Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey, contracted Ebola after returning from Sierra Leone in late 2014. Although she recovered, she later suffered a severe relapse that included meningitis and long-term health complications before eventually making a full recovery.

Health experts stressed that Ebola poses a very low risk to the wider public because it is not an airborne virus. Unlike influenza or COVID-19, Ebola spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person, contaminated objects, or infected animals. People generally become contagious only after developing symptoms, which typically appear between two and 21 days after infection.

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