The First Ebola Case in EU: Nurse Infected in Spain

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(Newswire.net — October 7, 2014)  — Spanish Health Minister Ana Mato confirmed Yesterday that authorities were working to establish the source of the contagion, while an emergency protocol had been put in place.

“She is a health professional who took care of the infected with the disease who were repatriated and cared for at Carlos III” hospital, the director of Spain’s public health department, Mercedes Vinuesa, told on a news conference.

The European Commission “sent a letter Monday to the Spanish health minister to explain how the nurse contracted the deadly disease, “despite all the precautions taken,” a spokesman said.

The nurse began to feel sick on 30 September. As she was admitted into hospital with a high fever in Alcorcon, near Madrid, she is in a stable condition Minister Mato said.

“Both the health ministry and public health authorities are working together to give the best care to the patient and to guarantee the safety of all citizens,” the minister told a news conference.

The nurse contracted Ebola virus while she had treated Fr Manuel Garcia Viejo, 75, at the Madrid hospital. Fr Garcia Viejo is the second Spanish priest to die after being repatriated from Africa with the disease.

However, it is unclear how the nurse were allowed to go to holiday immediately after FR Viejo died, without testing for Ebola.

Meanwhile US President Barack Obama has said the White House is considering extra screening at US airports for people arriving from the worst-affected countries in West Africa.

The chances for an Ebola outbreak in the US were extremely low, Obama said.

It comes as the US tries to limit the spread from its first confirmed case, Liberian-American Thomas Duncan, who has been given Brincidofovir, a new experimental drug for treating Ebola which was developed in North Carolina.

There have been nearly 7,500 confirmed infections worldwide, with officials saying the figure is likely to be much higher in reality.