Spain Isolates Two After Health Worker Ebola Infection
By Charles Penty and Rodrigo Orihuela Oct 7, 2014 11:44 AM ET
Spain health officials isolated two people to see if they’re infected with Ebola after a Madrid nursing assistant became the first person to contract the viral illness outside of Africa.
The woman’s husband and a nurse are under observation, said Jose Arribas, the head of the infections unit at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid where the assistant worked and is being treated. Officials are monitoring about 52 people she interacted with, including hospital staff, authorities said at a news conference today.
The nursing assistant’s diagnosis adds to concern that the outbreak, which has killed more than 3,400 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, will spread outside West Africa. A man is hospitalized with Ebola in Dallas after traveling there from the Liberian capital Monrovia, the first time the virus has been inadvertently carried out of Africa in the almost 40 years since it was discovered.
“Above all we want to avoid alarming the population,” said Rafael Perez-Santamarina, head of Madrid’s La Paz hospital, at the news conference. “We are complying with the established procedure but we are revising all protocols, including those inside the hospital and those outside.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-07/spain-isolates-two-after-health-worker-ebola-infection.html