[10/6/14] MADRID » In the first known transmission of the outbreak of Ebola outside West Africa, a Spanish nurse who treated a missionary for the disease at a Madrid hospital has tested positive for the virus, Spain's health minister said Monday.
The female nurse was part of the medical team that cared for a 69-year-old Spanish priest who died Sept. 25 in a Madrid hospital designated for treating Ebola patients after he was flown home from Sierra Leone, where he served as the medical director of a hospital there treating infected Ebola patients, Health Minister Ana Mato said.
The nurse is believed to have contracted the virus from that priest, though she was also a member of the team that treated another Spanish priest who died earlier from Ebola.
More than 370 health workers in West Africa have become infected in the outbreak, and more than half of those have died. Doctors and nurses there have worked under difficult conditions, treating patients in overflowing wards, sometimes without proper protection. But even under ideal conditions, experts warn that caring for Ebola patients always involves a risk.
WHO estimates the latest Ebola outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people.
The World Health Organization on Monday night confirmed there has not been a transmission outside West Africa in the current outbreak prior to the Spanish nurse.
No comments:
Post a Comment