A British doctor who tested positive for Ebola while working on the outbreak response in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been medically evacuated to the United Kingdom for specialist treatment.
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The UK Department of Health and Social Care confirmed on Thursday that the patient, whose identity has not been disclosed, was brought back from the DRC aboard a specialist medical evacuation flight arranged in collaboration with Congolese authorities and international health partners.
The doctor is currently receiving treatment in a high-level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London, one of the United Kingdom’s specialist facilities for managing high-consequence infectious diseases.
According to the British government, the unit is specifically designed to treat patients with serious infectious diseases while preventing contact with the general public.
The government said established infection prevention and control procedures were followed throughout the medical evacuation and would remain in place for everyone involved in the patient’s treatment.
Dr Renu Bindra, Deputy Director of All Hazards Public Health Response at the UK Health Security Agency, said the country’s health system had protocols in place to minimise the possibility of further transmission.
“The risk to the wider public remains low,” Bindra said.
UKHSA stressed that Ebola does not spread through the air but is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person who is showing symptoms.
The agency said the Royal Free Hospital’s isolation unit operates strict protocols, with healthcare workers using appropriate personal protective equipment and other infection-control measures.
The case is the first involving a British national linked to the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, although people from other countries have previously contracted the disease during the outbreak.
The current outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus, was declared in the DRC in May 2026 and has grown into the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record.
World Health Organisation figures show that, as of November 1, the DRC had recorded 10,532 confirmed cases and 5,126 confirmed deaths.
Across the countries listed by WHO as affected by the outbreak, 10,563 confirmed cases and 5,130 confirmed deaths had been recorded, alongside one probable death.
Cases linked to the wider outbreak have also been recorded outside the DRC, including in Uganda, Kenya, France and Nigeria.
Nigeria confirmed an imported Ebola case in October involving a 42-year-old woman who had recently travelled from Uganda before arriving in Abuja.
She tested positive for Bundibugyo virus disease on October 20 and was subsequently medically evacuated to Switzerland with her husband, who had been identified as a close contact.
Two later suspected Ebola cases investigated in north-eastern Nigeria tested negative after two rounds of laboratory testing, leaving the Swiss woman as Nigeria’s only confirmed case associated with the current outbreak at the time.
Health authorities have continued to monitor the outbreak amid concerns over cross-border transmission.
The World Health Organisation has said the DRC remains the main centre of transmission, with thousands of infections and deaths recorded across several provinces.
The UK Health Security Agency said the evacuation of the British doctor does not change the overall risk level in Britain and that members of the public do not need to take additional precautions.
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