Heathrow cleared Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey for travel

An undated Cafferkey family handout photo of Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey, from Blantyre, who has been named as the healthcare worker being treated in Londons Royal Free Hospital for Ebola. Photograph: EPA

Josh Halliday, Rowena Mason, Severin Carrell

Health officials are facing serious questions over the UKs Ebola screening process after it emerged that a Scottish nurse who contracted the virus was cleared to leave Heathrow despite raising concerns about her health.

Public Health England revealed that Pauline Cafferkey (39) told medics she was worried she had Ebola before being given the all-clear to catch a British Airways flight to Glasgow.

Ms Cafferkey, a community nurse in Blantyre in south Lanarkshire, is the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed on British soil. She was receiving specialist treatment in an isolation unit at Londons Royal Free hospital on Tuesday .

Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, admitted there were questions over whether officials should have been more precautionary about Ms Cafferkeys concerns, but stressed that the risk to the public was extremely low.

Ms Cafferkey returned on Sunday night on a flight from Freetown to Heathrow via Casablanca. While at Heathrow, Ms Cafferkey was screened alongside other health workers but asked for a second temperature test because she was worried she had contracted the virus.

Health officials said she passed six extra checks and was cleared to catch her internal British Airways flight from London to Glasgow.

Asked why Ms Cafferkey was allowed to fly, Ms Davies said: She was cleared to travel because she did not have a significantly raised temperature. It does raise a question about whether we should be more precautionary.

Ms Davies confirmed that Ms Cafferkey would be offered plasma from European Ebola survivors including the British nurse William Pooley, who recovered from Ebola in September.

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Heathrow cleared Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey for travel