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Spain Seeks to Prevent Spread of Ebola After a Nurse Is Infected Spain Is Pressed for Answers After a Nurse Is Infected With Ebola
(about 5 hours later)
BARCELONA, Spain — Spain intensified efforts on Tuesday to contain any spread of Ebola from an infected health worker as the government came under increased pressure from the political opposition and the European Union. BARCELONA, Spain — Spain’s government came under heavy criticism Tuesday as it dealt with the repercussions of Western Europe’s first Ebola case, quarantining three more people and monitoring dozens who had come into contact with an infected nurse.
The health worker, a nurse who has not been identified, was described as being in a stable condition. Her husband and two other people were quarantined, and monitoring was extended to another 50 who might have come into contact with her. The nurse contracted the illness while treating a Spanish missionary who was infected in Sierra Leone and flown to Carlos III Hospital in Madrid. Health care workers, who have been sparring with the government over cutbacks, said they had not received proper training or equipment to handle an Ebola case. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, asked for an explanation, according to news reports. And some opposition politicians called for the health minister, Ana Mato, to resign.
The nurse’s husband has shown no signs of having the disease but was isolated as a precaution, said Dr. Francisco Arnalich, head of internal medicine at Carlos III Hospital. At a news conference in Madrid, officials insisted that they had taken all appropriate measures to prevent the spread of the virus. But in a sign of the government’s unease with the possible political consequences, a lower-ranking official, María Mercedes Vinuesa, director of public health, went before Parliament on Tuesday to answer questions, not Ms. Mato.
A second nurse who also treated the missionary was put into quarantine after experiencing diarrhea, but she did not have a fever, the most common early symptom of Ebola. The infected nurse is being treated using blood serum from a nun who survived Ebola after contracting the disease in Liberia, the newspaper El Mundo reported. The infected nurse, who has not been identified, was described as being in stable condition. Her husband and two other people were quarantined, and monitoring was extended to about 50 people who were believed to have come into contact with her.
A Nigerian man who recently arrived in Spain was also under quarantine but tested negative for Ebola, The Associated Press reported. Health officials have said that the nurse became infected while treating a missionary, Manuel García Viejo, who died in the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid on Sept. 25, after being repatriated from Sierra Leone. Officials said the nurse went on vacation the day after he died, then told a medical center that she had a fever of about 100 degrees on Sept. 30. She was hospitalized only on Monday, initially in another establishment without any unit specifically for handling diseases like Ebola..
Opposition politicians said Tuesday that Ana Mato, the health minister, needed to explain any safety lapse, while some called for her immediate removal. Caridad García Álvarez, a lawmaker from the United Left party, wrote on Twitter that Ms. Mato needed to resign after ignoring warnings from health workers about inadequate safety measures. The nurse’s husband has shown no signs of having the disease but was isolated as a precaution, said Dr. Francisco Arnalich, head of internal medicine at the hospital.
Instead of Ms. Mato, another official from the Health Ministry, María Mercedes Vinuesa, appeared before Parliament on Tuesday, saying that a list was being drawn up of all the people who might have come into contact with the nurse. She said Spain had different treatments to deal with Ebola, but offered no further details. Reached by phone in his hospital ward, the nurse’s husband told the newspaper El Mundo that the couple had canceled vacation plans after he had an accident at work, and that his wife had decided to spend a few days at her mother’s, instead. He did not specify the mother’s location. He said that he felt fine and that he was confident his own health was evolving “favorably.” But he said he was angered to hear that the medical authorities were recommending, as a precaution, that their dog be euthanized.
Amid recent tensions between Spanish medical staff members and the government over spending cuts in the health sector, representatives of medical unions were quoted on Spanish news media websites as saying that austerity measures had left health workers poorly trained and ill-equipped to handle an Ebola case. The husband, identified by the newspaper as Javier, said his wife, identified as Teresa, had told him that she followed all the safety instructions set by the hospital and did not know how she could have become infected. The case is worrisome because Spain is a developed country that is expected to have the rigorous infection control protocols needed to fight the spread of Ebola.
Carlos III Hospital had been specifically selected by Spain to welcome repatriated Ebola patients, and Yolanda Fuentes, a deputy director of the hospital, said Monday that the protective suits worn by health workers “comply perfectly with the protocol and the required protective measures for this disease.” A second nurse who also treated the missionary was put under quarantine after reporting diarrhea, but she did not have a fever, the most common early symptom of Ebola, health officials said.
The European Commission wrote to the government in Madrid requesting an explanation of how the nurse was infected, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Frédéric Vincent, a spokesman for the commission. A European health safety committee is set to meet on Wednesday to review the situation. Still, Mr. Vincent said it was “highly improbable” that the virus would spread further across Europe. A Nigerian man who recently arrived in Spain is also under quarantine but tested negative for Ebola, according to Spanish health authorities. A second test is to be carried out Wednesday.
As an assistant nurse, the woman who became infected had only twice entered the room of the missionary Manuel García Viejo, who died of Ebola, including once after his death, according to Antonio Alemany, a health official from the regional government of Madrid. Opposition politicians said Tuesday that Ms. Mato, the health minister, needed to explain any safety lapse, while some called for her immediate removal. Caridad García Álvarez, a lawmaker from the United Left party, said on Twitter that Ms. Mato should resign, saying she had ignored warnings from health workers about inadequate safety measures.
Some staff members are being monitored for symptoms of Ebola at a hospital in Alcorcón, on the outskirts of Madrid, where the nurse spent most of Monday before being transferred to Carlos III Hospital shortly after midnight. The nurse came into contact with 21 medical staff members in Alcorcón, the newspaper El País reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed hospital sources. The nurse was kept in isolation at Alcorcón, but the authorities could not rule out that she had come into contact with others before her tests came back positive, in a hospital that has no unit specialized to treat infections like Ebola. Ms. Vinuesa told Parliament that the authorities were drawing up a list of all the people who might have come into contact with the infected nurse. She said Spain had different treatments for Ebola, but offered no further details.
Amid recent tensions between Spanish health care workers and the government over spending cuts in the health sector, representatives of medical unions were quoted on Spanish news media websites as saying that austerity measures had left health workers poorly trained and ill-equipped to handle an Ebola case.
Carlos III Hospital was specifically selected by Spain to welcome repatriated Ebola patients, and Yolanda Fuentes, a deputy director of the hospital, said Monday that the protective suits worn by health workers “comply perfectly with the protocol and the required protective measures for this disease.”
The European Commission wrote to the government in Madrid requesting an explanation of how the nurse was infected, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting Frédéric Vincent, a spokesman for the commission. A European health safety committee is set to meet on Wednesday to review the situation.
,Mr. Vincent said it was “highly improbable” that the virus would spread further across Europe.
As an assistant nurse, the woman who became infected had only twice entered the room of the missionary who died of Ebola, including once after his death, according to Antonio Alemany, a health official from the regional government of Madrid.
The nurse, who is believed to be in her 40s, came into contact with 22 other people, mostly medical staff members in a hospital in Alcorcón, on the outskirts of Madrid, where she was initially treated on Monday before being transferred to Carlos III Hospital shortly after midnight, according to Rafael Pérez-Santamarina, the general manager of the La Paz hospital, a larger establishment that oversees the Carlos III hospital. Mr. Pérez-Santamarina told reporters that the nurse was being treated on Tuesday using antibodies from other patients who had survived the disease.