Nurse who treated Ebola patient in Spain tests positive for virus

A nurse in Spain has tested positive for the Ebola virus after treating a patient repatriated to Madrid from Sierra Leone, the first reported case of someone infected with the virus outside west Africa.

The nurse was part of the team that treated a Spanish missionary with Ebola who arrived back in Europe two weeks ago. The 69-year-old missionary, Manuel Garcia Viejo, died on September 25th, four days after being taken to Carlos III hospital in Madrid.

The nurse arrived at a hospital in Alcorcon with a high fever yesterday, and two round of tests proved positive for the deadly virus, Spain's health minister, Ana Mato, said.

The first missionary to be repatriated to Spain was 75-year-old Miguel Pajares in August. He also died in Madrid. His return prompted concern among health professionals who said that Spanish hospitals were not adequately equipped to handle the Ebola outbreak.

Biosafety

Amyts, a trade union that represents doctors, called the repatriation risky, and its president, Daniel Bernabeu, asked Spanish news agency Efe if “anyone could guarantee 100 per cent that the virus wouldn’t escape”.

Bernabeu contrasted Spain with the United States and pointed out that the Americans had 10 hospitals with the highest level of biosafety possible. Spain, in contrast, has just one suitable hospital with biosafety levels that are much lower.

The fifth American to contract Ebola in west Africa arrived in Omaha yesterday morning. A specially- equipped plane carrying Ashoka Mukpo, an American journalist who contracted the disease while covering the outbreak in Liberia, landed at Eppley airfield in Omaha.

He was then taken by ambulance to the Nebraska medical centre, where he will be treated in a biomedical isolation unit – the largest in the country. Mukpo was working in Liberia as a freelance cameraman for NBC News when he tested positive for Ebola last week.

Treatments

Meanwhile, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the US is now receiving an experimental drug for the disease, a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday. The drug, called brincidofovir, was developed by Chimerix Inc.

The patient, Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, remains in critical but stable condition, the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas said. Questions had been raised about why Duncan had not received experimental treatments after being admitted just over a week ago.

They had been given to at least three other Ebola patients flown to the United States from countries in west Africa, where the virus has killed more than 3,400 people. – (Guardian)