A British citizen currently in the DR Congo has tested positive for Ebola, a UK government spokesperson said in a statement. The patient, whose identity is unknown, is in stable condition and is expected to arrive in the UK on Wednesday or Thursday before being transferred in a specialist ambulance to a high consequence infectious disease unit.

Evacuation to Specialist Hospital

The worker, who was deployed to DR Congo by a humanitarian organization, is being flown to the UK. He will be transported to the Royal Free Hospital in London, which has a high-level isolation unit for infectious diseases such as Ebola. Other units are located in Newcastle and Liverpool.

According to an official document seen by Reuters, the UK has well-established procedures for handling such cases, and those processes have been activated. The UK government said the risk to the public from this case remains low.

Current Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo

The current outbreak in DR Congo, declared on 15 May by the country’s health ministry, has surpassed 10,000 cases and 5,000 deaths. It is the 17th recorded outbreak in the country since Ebola was first identified, and it is the largest and deadliest in the country’s history. The Bundibugyo variant of the virus is responsible for this outbreak and has no approved treatment, though vaccine trials are underway.

This is the first case involving a British national contracting Ebola in the current outbreak. The virus is spread through direct contact with body fluids such as blood or vomit of infected people or dead bodies. In an interview with the Guardian, Dr. Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the “unprecedented” spread of the outbreak could reach the UK and other countries.

Global Spread and Vaccine Trials

The outbreak has already spread to Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria, where a case was confirmed last month after a woman who arrived from Uganda tested positive. She and a close contact were evacuated to Switzerland for treatment. The World Health Organization said experts have recommended adding two new candidate vaccines to an ongoing clinical trial in DR Congo. These vaccines, developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, and by Moderna, will be tested for the first time on the Bundibugyo variant during an active outbreak.

Other patients have been evacuated for specialized care, including two to Germany and one to the Netherlands. There have also been more than four confirmed cases of Ebola in the UK since 1976. All prior cases involved health workers responding to outbreaks in West Africa between 2014 and 2015, none of which resulted in a death.