A British nurse who caught ebola working in Sierra Leone has made a total recovery, but ruled out an immediate return to Africa because his passport had been incinerated to prevent the spread of the disease.
William Pooley, 29, said he was “wonderfully lucky” as he was discharged from the Royal Free Hospital, in north London, and returned to his parents’ home in Suffolk today.
His isolation unit will now undergo a thorough decontamination and his £25,000 hospital bed burnt.
Michael Jacobs, an infectious diseases consultant at the hospital, said: “We are prepared all day every day for this sort of thing happening. It is just a question of when.”
Mr Pooley described the moment ebola was diagnosed, saying he knew it was bad news when a doctor from the World Health Organisation woke him with the results of his blood test wearing personal protective equipment.
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“I was worried that I was going to die, I was worried about my family and I was scared,” Mr Pooley said.
His parents, Robin and Jackie, were at a family wedding when he rang to tell them the news. It was one of the worst moments, he said: “No one wants to upset their parents in that way.”
They can now keep a close eye on him for a while. “They incinerated my passport, so my mum will be pleased to know I can’t go anywhere,” he said.
Mr Pooley was flown back to Britain on an RAF jet on August 24. Since then, he has been treated in an isolation unit at the hospital, where he treated with the experimental drug ZMapp. Dr Jacobs said he was “delighted” with his patient’s recovery: “He is back to just the same man he was before.”
It was impossible to say whether ZMapp was responsible, he said, although its use showed it could be administered without harm. Much more research would be needed before the drug could be said to cure ebola.
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Two American doctors given the drug after being infected in Liberia subsequently recovered, although two others had died. About 47 per cent of the 3,000 people infected have survived.
ZMapp is an antibody that binds to the ebola virus, giving the immune system a better chance of clearing it.
Other elements of Mr Pooley’s treatment have been described as “fairly basic”, including rehydration, intravenous fluid, and electrolyte solutions. He was treated through a plastic tent that surrounded his hospital bed, an experience he said was “like being in a fish bowl”.
Mr Pooley studied nursing in Southampton before travelling to Sierra Leone in March to spend six months working with Aids and cancer patients.
In July, he travelled to the Kenema government hospital in the east to help after the ebola outbreak. “It didn’t feel like a decision. It felt natural, because I was in a place to help,” he said.
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Describing colleagues who remained in Africa as heroic, he said: “I have friends that are sick at the moment. The level of care I received here was amazing... it’s not the same in West Africa.”
His symptoms did not progress to the worst stages, he said. “The people I’ve seen dying, really horrible deaths... I had some unpleasant symptoms but nothing compared with the worst of the disease.”