Second person tests negative for Ebola in Madrid

Spanish health authorities said today that another person being monitored in Madrid for Ebola had tested negative for the disease.

The man, a Spaniard who had travelled from Nigeria, was one of several people hospitalised after authorities confirmed on Monday that a Spanish nurse had caught the disease in Madrid.

A second nurse was also cleared of Ebola. A third nursing assistant was hospitalised late yesterday for monitoring, a source at La Paz hospital said - bringing the number of people examined in hospital for Ebola to five, two of whom tested negative.

Spanish authorities were yesterday seeking to contain the spread of the Ebola virus as pressure grew on them to explain how a nurse in Madrid had been infected by the disease.

The woman, who is in her early 40s, has so far only been identified as Teresa R R and on Monday she became the first confirmed case of Ebola contracted outside Africa.

She appears to have been infected while working as part of the Madrid medical team that treated two Catholic missionaries, Miguel Pajares and Manuel García Viejo, who had the disease. Pajares, who became infected in Liberia, died in August and García Viejo, who was infected in Sierra Leone, died late last month.

The infected nurse’s condition remained stable yesterday and she was being treated with an experimental antiviral drug, as well as receiving antibodies from a survivor of the virus.

Her husband was in quarantine in Madrid yesterday.

A total of 52 health workers were being monitored in Madrid as a precautionary measure. Of those, 22 were believed to have had contact with the infected nurse when she was initially admitted to hospital, while the other 30 were colleagues at the hospital where she works. All are required to check their temperature twice daily for a three-week period before they can be given the all-clear.

The health authorities said tracking the recent movements of the nurse and identifying as many people as possible with whom she had had contact recently was a priority.

Agencies