A frontline nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa has issued a stark warning: complacency at UK borders could be the country's downfall. Speaking from her home in Manchester, Sarah Oduya, 34, told reporters she is 'terrified' that the next Ebola outbreak is already brewing in the Democratic Republic of Congo and that British entry points lack the necessary screening infrastructure.
Oduya spent 2014 fighting the epidemic that killed over 11,000 people. She recalls the chaos: 'We ran out of body bags. We ran out of chlorine. We ran out of hope.' Now, with a new strain emerging in Equateur Province, she fears history will repeat itself because the UK has slashed public health budgets.
'We've cut 40 per cent of Public Health England's funding since 2010,' she said. 'Border Force officers are stretched thin. At Heathrow, temperature checks are laughable. A traveller could land with a fever and slip through without a single question.'
The nurse's warning comes as the World Health Organisation reports 23 suspected cases and 9 deaths in the Congo outbreak. The strain is not yet confirmed as the Zaire species which caused the 2014 crisis, but Oduya insists the risk is real.
'We need thermoscanners at all ports. We need quarantine protocols ready. But most of all we need to stop pretending poverty and inequality aren't the real viruses.'
Downing Street has dismissed her claims as alarmist, insisting the UK's response is 'world-leading'. But Oduya is unimpressed: 'They said the same in 2014. Then we had a case land at Heathrow. A nurse caught it. She nearly died.'
For frontline workers, the message is clear the next pandemic may not wait for politicians to catch up.
