A Fife woman has been identified as Scotland’s first confirmed case of ebola.
Pauline Cafferkey, who is originally from Crossgates, near Dunfermline, contracted the disease while volunteering in Sierra Leone.
Pauline, who has been transferred to the Royal Free Hospital London for treatment, works at Blantyre Health Centre in South Lanarkshire but was working with Save the Children to help victims of the deadly disease in Africa.
She was working near Freetown and colleagues believe she may have contracted ebola while attending a church service without protective clothing.
Pauline was one of four Scottish volunteers working for Save the Children.
Doctor Martin Deahl from Wales sat next to Pauline on the flight back to the UK and branded the health precautions at Heathrow Airport as “shambolic”.
The 58-year-old told the Daily Record: “I was sitting next to her on the plane when we flew back on Sunday night and she seemed fine.For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Courier“You can only catch Ebola if you come into contact with bodily fluids such as blood, spit or urine, which we were extra careful about not doing.
“But I am absolutely fine. I am just so shocked and heartbroken to hear that anyone from our team has had this happen after such a difficult Christmas out there.
“Everybody on the flight seemed so well and in good spirits.”
He added: “Pauline seemed fine, fit and healthy. When we arrived into Heathrow Airport at 5pm Sunday night I can only describe the situation as chaotic.
“I had a slightly high temperature of 37.5C and was put in an isolation room but my temperature went down. It was slightly raised because I had a thick coat on.
“The precautions and checks at the airport were shambolic. They ran out of testing kits and didn’t seem to know what they were doing.”