A nurse infected with the Ebola virus in Spain is an isolated case, experts said Monday as people who came into contact with her in Madrid remained asymptomatic.
“Other than the [nurse], there is at the moment no one else in Spain would could transmit the virus,” medical professor Fernando Rodriguez said after a meeting of the Spanish government’s special Ebola commission. “This is reassuring news for public health.”
His statement was made as EU health ministers prepared to meet in Brussels this week to discuss ways of preventing Ebola from spreading in the bloc.
Infections in Spain and the United States have raised fears of an international spread of the virus that has killed more than 4,000 people since it broke out in West Africa. Experts said they believe infections there began in December.
The European Commission and Italy, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, have invited EU ministers to Brussels on Thursday for a high-level conference, according to Frederic Vincent, spokesman for EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg.
“The idea is to discuss the question of controls upon arrival in the EU,” Vincent said, adding that the issue had been on the table since Britain announced its intention to implement them last week after a US initiative.
While it is for individual EU member states to decide on screening measures at airports or train stations, the commission recommends that they coordinate their actions, the spokesman said.
In the meantime, the infected Spanish nurse, Teresa Romero, has been improving steadily since last week, and health authorities said she is stable.
She had treated a Spanish missionary who was infected with the virus in Liberia and flown to Madrid for care. The missionary later died.
Romero, along with 15 people she had contact with, remain in quarantine. She was diagnosed with Ebola on October 6, meaning authorities will have to wait for a 21-day incubation period to end before the risk of further infection is averted.
On Monday, the Ministry of Justice launched an investigation into whether labour violations occurred at the hospital where Romero worked.
According to the newspaper El Pais, multiple medical workers unions have already submitted complaints that there was insufficient training for Ebola health care workers. Madrid Chief Prosecutor Manuel Moix opened an investigation last week.
GNA
