A Spanish nurse is the first person to be infected with Ebola (in the current epidemic) to contract the disease outside West Africa, according to a report by NBC News. The woman – described as a “sanitary tech” in the reports – has contracted the dangerous disease while treating a Spanish priest in Madrid, who later deceased due to the virus.
Manuel Garcia Viejo, the elderly priest treated by the latest Ebola patient, has contracted the disease while doing missionary work in Sierra Leone, one of the countries where the disease is endemic. After returning to Spain, he was treated in the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, where he has been quarantined since entering the country. The priest passed away on September 25th. The nurse, who has contracted the disease, has reportedly entered the room of the patient only once, upon his passing.
This is the first time during the current Ebola epidemic when a patient gets infected with the virus outside West Africa. There are currently six Ebola patients in treatment in the United States, but all of them have contracted the disease while outside the country. A French nurse who has contracted the disease while working with Doctors Without Frontiers in Liberia has recovered, according to the announcement made recently by the French Ministry of Health. A German hospital in Hamburg has also announced successfully treating a Senegalese scientist who has contracted the disease while working in Sierra Leone.
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According to the World Health Organization, this is the worst Ebola outbreak on record. It has infected over 7,400 people in West Africa – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and it has claimed over 3,400 lives. The number of infected patients might be strongly underestimated, though – the lack of knowledge about the disease, the lack of access to several settlements in the affected countries and the insufficient availability of medical facilities makes it hard to correctly evaluate the real size of the epidemic.