UK hospital: Condition of nurse with Ebola deteriorated to critical

LONDON – The hospital treating a British nurse who contracted the Ebola virus in West Africa says her condition has deteriorated to critical.

Pauline Cafferkey, the first person diagnosed with Ebola on British soil, returned to Britain on Dec. 28 from Sierra Leone. She is being treated in an isolation unit at London’s Royal Free Hospital with an experimental antiviral drug and with plasma from a recovered patient containing Ebola-fighting antibodies.

The hospital said Saturday the 39-year-old nurse’s condition had deteriorated over the past two days.

Cafferkey was working as a volunteer nurse in Sierra Leone, and was diagnosed shortly after returning to Britain.