The first British citizen to contract Ebola during its outbreak in West Africa has been discharged from hospital after making a full recovery.
William Pooley, 29, was treated in a special isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
The experimental drug ZMapp was administered on Pooley, whose family has praised the “world class” care at the hospital.
Around half of the 3,000 people infected in the outbreak, which began in Guinea, have died. Pooley was working as a volunteer nurse in one of the worst affected countries, Sierra Leone, when he contracted the virus.
Pooley told the BBC of the moment he realised he had contracted the lethal virus.
“I was woken early that evening by one of the WHO doctors and immediately I knew it was bad news, it’s a bit disturbing to get that diagnosis.
“I was worried that I was going to die, I was worried about my family and I was scared,” he said.
He was flown back to the UK on 24 August.
“I was very lucky in several ways, firstly in the standard of care I received, which is a world apart from what people are receiving in West Africa at the moment.
“My symptoms never progressed to the worst stage of the disease, I’ve seen people dying horrible deaths, I had some unpleasant symptoms, but nothing compared to the worst of the disease,” he added.
He said it felt “natural” to go and help in West Africa and praised “heroic” efforts of other people working on the ground.
Dr Michael Jacobs, an infectious diseases consultant at the hospital, said: “He is not infectious to anyone else now. The virus is cleared from the body, and there is no risk to the wider community in any way.”
He said the isolation unit Pooley was kept in was going through chemical decontamination.
“This unit is always there, it’s business-as-usual for us, we were prepared for this to happen and we’re prepared if it happens again.”
Symptoms of Ebola include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage. The disease is contracted through body fluids, such as blood and saliva. The disease has a fatality rate that approaches 90%, but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 55%.