Woman 'exposed to Ebola virus' being quarantined in Cardiff amid fears of first British case

The potential victim is not showing any symptoms of the killer disease - but has voluntarily confined herself to her home as a precaution

A woman has been quarantined in Cardiff amid fears she may have been exposed to the deadly Ebola virus.

The potential victim, who has not been named, is being monitored by medics on a daily basis at home in Wales after visiting west Africa.

According to Pubic Health Wales, the woman is showing no symptoms but has voluntarily confined herself to her home as a precaution.

Her condition will be monitored for the next 21 days - the maximum length of time the virus usually incubates before symptoms emerge.

A spokeswoman for Public Health Wales told The Daily Mirror: "It is a watch and wait scenario at the minute.

"We cannot even test the individual at this stage because you can only test when symptoms show themselves. continue reading

"But even then we have to be careful as it could be the cold or the flu.

"The disease only becomes contagious when an individual becomes infected so at the moment we are advising people not to worry.

"If we did confirm the first case of Ebola in the UK you can rest assured we would let the public know immediately."

She added: "We are alert to the possibility of Ebola cases in the UK given the outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea and we remain vigilant to unexplained illness in people who have travelled from the area.

"Processes have been developed to protect public health in the event that we are notified of any individual who may have been exposed to Ebola."

Since the latest outbreak of the deadly disease in March nearly 900 people have died in West Africa.

Ebola is a severe acute viral illness often characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat.

In its early stages the symptoms can often be confused with a cold or flu.

With Ebola, however, other symptoms emerge which include vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.

Symptoms can show up as much as 21 days after exposure to the virus.

On Monday we revealed there were fears a passenger who died after landing at Gatwick Airport may have had the killer disease but tests later proved negative.

The woman, said to be 72, became ill on the gangway after she left a Gambia Bird jet with 128 passengers on board.

She died in hospital on Saturday.