Ebola crisis: Nurse in Spain tests positive in first infection outside west Africa

A nurse in Spain has tested positive for the Ebola virus after treating a patient repatriated to Madrid from Sierra Leone, the country’s health authorities said on Monday. The nurse is thought to be the first person to have contracted the virus outside west Africa.

The auxiliary nurse was part of the team attending to a Spanish missionary with Ebola who was repatriated two weeks ago. The 69-year-old missionary, Manuel García Viejo, died just four days after being brought to Madrid’s Carlos III hospital.

Health authorities said on Monday night that the nurse was in stable condition. She had alerted them to a slight fever on 30 September, said Antonio Alemany from the regional government of Madrid, and checked into a hospital in Alcorcón with a high fever on Sunday. Ebola protocol was immediately activated at the hospital and initial and secondary tests were both positive for the virus.

The patient, who is married with no children, was on holiday when she began showing symptoms, said Alemany.

“We’re drawing up a list of all the people she may have been in contact with, including with health professionals at the Alcorcón hospital where she is being treated,” he added, estimating that more than 30 people were being carefully monitored for any sign of symptoms.

In August, the nurse also treated 75-year-old Spanish missionary Miguel Pajares who had been repatriated to Madrid from Liberia. Pajares, who succumbed to the virus five days after arriving in Madrid, was the first patient in the current, fast-spreading outbreak to be evacuated to Europe for treatment. The decision to bring him to Spain prompted concern among health professionals who said that Spanish hospitals were not adequately equipped to handle the Ebola outbreak.

Amyts, a trade union that represents physicians, called the repatriation of Pajares risky, and its president, Daniel Bernabéu, asked Spanish news agency Efe if “anyone could guarantee 100% that the virus wouldn’t escape”.

Bernabéu compared Spain to the US and pointed out that the Americans have 10 hospitals with the highest level of biosafety possible. Spain, in contrast, has just one suitable hospital with biosafety levels that are much lower.

Health authorities on Monday said that health professionals treating Ebola patients in Spain always followed protocols outlined by the World Health Organisation. The nurse would have entered García Viejo’s room just twice, said Alemany, and would have been wearing protective equipment on both occasions. “We don’t know yet what failed,” said Alemany. “We’re investigating the mechanism of infection.”