Who is Pauline Cafferkey and how did the nurse contract Ebola?
PAULINE Cafferkey, a Scottish nurse, is currently facing a disciplinary hearing as it is alleged she hid her temperature during checks on her journey back from Sierra Leone.
She hit headlines in December 2014 after returning from Sierra Leone, where she had been an aid worker, to the UK - where she was discovered to have Ebola.
Ebola is an infectious viral hemorrhagic fever, which devastated West Africa in 2014 after an outbreak began in Guinea and is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person.
Cafferkey, who has 18 years of experience as a nurse, joined a 30-strong team of NHS medical workers and travelled to Sierra Leone in November 2014 for three weeks.
But has been reported 40-year-old Cafferkey contracted the disease after wearing a visor while treating patients at the Kerry Town treatment centre in Sierra Leone, instead of the recommended goggles.
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She had no idea she had Ebola as she flew back to the UK - but when she arrived home in Glasgow, just a few hours later she contacted the infectious diseases unit as she was shaking with a high temperature.
Although she describes herself as a private person, Cafferkey was then thrown into the spotlight as it was confirmed she had Ebola. She was urgently transported by the RAF to the Royal Free Hospital in London, where her condition worsened.
But, miraculously, Cafferkey recovered - returning to work in just months and receiving a Pride of Britain award for her selfless bravery.
However, her ordeal wasn't over - as in October 2015, she was readmitted to hospital with meningitis caused by the Ebola virus lingering in her spinal fluid. Again, she made an incredible recovery - but was admitted again and treated by the Royal Free's infectious diseases team in February 2016.
Describing her experience of Ebola, Cafferkey told the : “I just felt horrendous - and I actually said, ‘I can’t carry on. Just let me go, I’ve had enough. Obviously I knew, being a nurse, that death was imminent.”
She added: “I hope that the time will come soon, where I’m not that ‘Ebola Nurse’ - where I’m just myself again. I just hope it hurries up.”