Ukraine in Arabic | First Ebola infection confirmed in Spain
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ A nurse being treated for the deadly Ebola virus in Spain has been transferred from one Madrid hospital to another.
Spain’s health minister announced that the case was the first known transmission of the current outbreak of Ebola outside West Africa.
The woman was part of the team that treated Spanish priests Manuel Garcia Viejo and Miguel Pajares, who both died of the virus, officials say.
She originally went to the Alcorcon hospital with a fever on Sunday and was placed in isolation.
She is now in Carlos III Hospital for further treatment.
Spanish authorities are looking into how she was infected at a modern hospital with special equipment for helping people with deadly viruses.
“We are tracing everyone she has been in contact with and checking what contact they had,” explained Antonio Alemay, from Madrid’s public health system.
“We need to make sure the correct protection measures were taken, such as isolation, and temperature checks twice a day for 21 days,” he added.
The nurse’s husband has been quarantined in hospital, the head of Spain’s public health service told parliament on Tuesday.
Some 3,400 people have died in the outbreak - mostly in West Africa.
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.
He said the chances for an Ebola outbreak in the US were extremely low, but vowed to step up the pressure on larger countries to help with efforts to contain the disease.
It comes as the US tries to limit the spread from its first confirmed case, a Liberian in Dallas.
High fever
The Spanish nurse is in a stable condition, Ms. Mato said. She started to feel ill last week when she was on holiday.
The nurse was admitted to hospital in Alcorcon, near Madrid, on Monday morning with a high fever, she 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.
Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, died in the hospital Carlos III de Madrid on 25 September after catching Ebola in Sierra Leone.
Miguel Pajares, 75, died in August after contracting the virus in Liberia.
Experimental drug
Ebola spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has the virus and the only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate those who are infected.
There have been nearly 7,500 confirmed infections worldwide, with officials saying the figure is likely to be much higher in reality.
Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have been hardest hit.
Thomas Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the US, is being treated at a Dallas hospital in isolation. He caught the virus in his native Liberia.
Mr. Duncan's condition is critical but stable, doctors said on Monday.
He has been given Brincidofovir, a new experimental drug for treating Ebola which was developed in North Carolina.
