EU demands answers after husband of first Spanish Ebola patient quarantined

Ebola Virus

The EU Commission has written to the Spanish health minister demanding "clarification" as to how a Spanish nurse became the first person outside Africa to contract the deadly disease. Her husband is now under quarantine.

The husband of a Spanish nurse, who contracted the deadly Ebola virus while treating an infected missionary in Madrid, has been quarantined, the head of Spain's public health service, Mercedes Vinuesa, said on Tuesday.

The European Commission, meanwhile, has contacted the Spanish Health Minister, Ana Mato,"to obtain some clarification" of how the nurse contracted Ebola, despite all the precautions taken, Commission spokesman Frederic Vincent said.

"There is obviously a problem somewhere," said Vincent.

Despite the Spanish case, however, the Commission believes that the chance of a European Ebola epidemic "remains highly unlikely," but hopes that Spain's downfalls "may even in some way serve as a lesson for other member states."

 

First European contraction

Mato announced in a press conference on Monday that two tests had confirmed that a Spanish nurse had become the first person to contract the Ebola disease outside of Africa.

Despite having already started to feel ill several days earlier, the 40-year-old nurse checked into a hospital in the Madrid suburb of Alcorcon on Sunday, where she was quickly placed under quarantine.

The 40-year-old nurse was then transferred early on Tuesday to Madrid's Carlos III hospital, where she had helped treat two elderly Spanish missionaries who died of Ebola shortly after being brought home from West Africa.

The hemorrhagic virus, which has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa since the outbreak in March, is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people.