[1][2][3] She had been working at an Ebola treatment centre in Kerry Town in Sierra Leone,[2] and it is thought she contracted the virus as a result of wearing a visor, as recommended by the World Health Organization and the UK Ministry of Defence, instead of goggles.
[2][5] A Scottish government spokesman described the risk to the general public as "extremely low to the point of negligible" due to the very early stage of the infection at the time of detection.
[11][12][13] In a media interview in September 2015, Cafferkey said "I’ve had trouble with my thyroid, lost some of my hair and get really sore joints but I guess side effects are to be expected.
[19] On 21 October 2015 Dr Michael Jacobs, Cafferkey's doctor at the Royal Free Hospital, said at a televised press conference that Cafferkey was suffering from neurological complications from meningitis caused by Ebola virus, and had not been re-infected with Ebola, was being treated using a highly experimental anti-viral agent called GS5734, and had significantly improved, although she remained in an isolation tent and was not well enough to get out of bed.
[29] In 2014, due to the fact that Cafferkey had passed through border controls and travelled on a domestic flight from Heathrow to Glasgow, criticism was levelled at current screening protocols at UK points of entry, which mainly consisted of taking a person's temperature and asking a series of questions.
[31] In 2016, the Nursing and Midwifery Council initiated proceedings against Cafferkey, alleging that she had allowed an incorrect temperature to be recorded during the screening process upon returning to the UK from Sierra Leone in 2014.
The disciplinary panel was told that she had been impaired by illness at the time and heard evidence about how the Public Health England screening centre at Heathrow Airport had been unprepared for a large influx of passengers and that it was "busy, disorganised and even chaotic".
BBC Scotland reporter Philip Sim wrote: "It now seems as if the case against Pauline Cafferkey had fallen apart before the hearing even began - raising questions as to why she had to go through it in the first place".
[35] In April 2017, Cafferkey announced she would return to Sierra Leone in May to raise funds for Ebola survivors and children orphaned by the disease.