A Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone last year is in a "serious condition" after being readmitted to an isolation unit in London.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed that the virus is still present in Pauline Cafferkey's body after being left over from the original infection.
She is not thought to be contagious.
. . . .
Finding the virus in Ebola survivors months after recovering is not unheard of.
Previous outbreaks have shown the virus can survive in semen and it was found in the eye of a US doctor two months after recovering.
This can pose health problems for the patient, but is there a risk of spreading the virus?
Men are advised to use condoms indefinitely until more is known.
But there are now so many survivors in West Africa - around 13,000 - that if there was a major risk then we would know about it.
. . . .
Dr Ben Neuman, a virologist from the University of Reading, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that the outlook for Ms Cafferkey was good and it was unlikely the virus remained infectious.
He said: "Once the virus is removed from the blood once, it tends to retreat into the hard-to-access components of the body. It'll hide in places like the back of your eye or breast milk."
He said the effects of the virus on the body could last for up to two years, although it was difficult to know how long it could actually persist.
. . . .
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
• Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
• Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva
• Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 55%
• Incubation period is two to 21 days
• There is no proven vaccine or cure
• Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
• Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus's natural host
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