http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/world/europe/scottish-nurse-who-had-ebola-is-cleared-of-misconduct.html 2016-09-14 22:41:12 Scottish Nurse Who Had Ebola Is Cleared of Misconduct The nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone in 2014 and had been accused of concealing her high temperature from health officials. === LONDON — A Scottish nurse who contracted An independent panel set up by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which regulates nursing and midwifery in Britain, found that the nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, 40, had allowed an incorrect temperature to be recorded on her screening form at Heathrow Airport in London, but that her actions had been significantly impaired by exhaustion after a long flight home and early symptoms of the virus. Ms. Cafferkey’s “actions did not amount to misconduct,” the panel The panel was told that a doctor had recorded Ms. Cafferkey’s temperature at 38.3 degrees Celsius (100.94 degrees Fahrenheit), significantly higher than the 37.5-degree threshold requiring further assessment. After long delays at the airport’s chaotic screening area, an unnamed colleague said she would register Ms. Cafferkey’s temperature at 37.2 degrees Celsius so she could “get out of here and sort it out,” the report said. Ms. Cafferkey became Timothy Cole, the panel chairman, said there was “compelling and clear medical evidence” that Ms. Cafferkey had not intended to mislead health officials because of her “exhausted and increasingly unwell state.” Joyce Cullen, Ms. Cafferkey’s lawyer, said her client was relieved to have been cleared of wrongdoing. She also criticized Public Health England, a government agency, for having been “unprepared for the volume of people returning from countries affected by Ebola,” as well as “serious failures in communication.” “Pauline was lucky to survive and since her return from Sierra Leone has continued to suffer from ill health,” Ms. Cullen said, adding that Ms. Cafferkey would “never have knowingly put anyone in danger.” Ms. Cafferkey was the second person found to have Ebola in Britain. During the 2014 outbreak in West Africa, the disease killed more than 11,000 people. Ebola can persist for months in certain body tissues that are relatively protected from the immune system, including the eyes and the testes, and much is still unknown about the long-term effects of the virus.