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Ebola outbreak reaches Europe: Four people monitored in Spain
Last night, it was confirmed that a nurse in Spain had contracted Ebola.
She tested positive for the disease after treating a repatriated missionary from Sierra Leone in a Madrid hospital, marking the first case of someone becoming infected with Ebola outside of the African continent.
Now, three more people are being monitored over suspicion of carrying the virus, according to Spain's health authorities.
Officials told a news conference that those hospitalised included the nurse's husband, a traveller from Nigeria and a health worker, according to NBC news.
Spain's health minister Ana Mato said yesterday that an emergency protocol has been put in place as authorities work to confirm the source of the contamination of the first nurse who contracted the virus.
According to the Associated Press, the Spanish nurse visited reported to a Madrid hospital with a high fever earlier today, before being diagnosed with the disease after two rounds of tests. She had reportedly been feeling sick since 30 September.
The nurse had helped treat 69-year-old missionary Manuel Garcia Viejo, who died from the disease on 25 September. Ebola spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
Patients infected with the Ebola virus have previously been treated in Spain and the US, however this was the first reported case of infection taking place outside of Africa.
The current Ebola outbreak has so far killed over 3,000 people, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Yesterday, the fifth American to contract Ebola – freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo – arrived in Dallas to receive treatment. It has been less than a week since the first case of an infected American receiving treatment in the US.