LONDON -- A Scottish nurse who was readmitted to hospital earlier this month with complications related to the Ebola virus, which she contracted as an aid worker in Sierra Leone last year, is now in stable condition.
The Royal Free Hospital, where Pauline Cafferkey is being treated, released a statement on Monday saying the nurse's condition "has improved to serious but stable." Last week, the nurse's condition was described as critical.
Cafferkey, 39, who was working for Save the Children in Kerry Town when she contracted Ebola, was transported from Glasgow to an isolation unit earlier this month. Initially, the hospital said she was being treated for an "unusual late complication" of the virus; after her condition deteriorated, however, they said she was again suffering from Ebola.
The World Health Organization says it's possible in rare instances for patients who survived Ebola to develop the lethal disease again, when the virus lingering in the body starts to replicate at high levels.
Cafferkey was recently honoured at the Pride of Britain Awards in London last month and met with Prime Minister David Cameron's wife, Samantha, at 10 Downing Street.
Since Ebola broke out in Guinea's forest region last year, it has killed more than 11,200 people in West Africa, in the largest recorded outbreak of the virus.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press