Spain quarantines 3 more after nurse infected with Ebola, 50 others being monitored

MADRID (AP) — Health officials in Spain have placed three more people under quarantine for Ebola at a Madrid hospital where a nursing assistant became infected.

More than 50 other possible contacts are being monitored. Among those quarantined is the nursing assistant’s husband. He has shown no signs of having the disease and officials describe his hospitalization as a precaution.

The nursing assistant was part of a special team that cared for a Spanish priest who died of Ebola. Hers was the first case of Ebola transmitted outside of West Africa, where a months-long outbreak has killed at least 3,500 people and infected at least twice as many.

The case highlights the dangers that health care workers face caring for Ebola patients. Officials say the nursing assistant had changed a diaper for the priest and collected material from his room after he died. Dead Ebola victims are highly infectious, and in West Africa their bodies are collected by workers in hazmat outfits.

More than 370 health care workers in the hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have died.

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104-a-16-(John Oxford, professor of virology, Queen Mary College, in interview)-“the United States”-John Oxford, a professor of virology at London’s Queen Mary College, says the newest cases, including the nurse in Madrid who contracted the virus, underscore the difficulties of containing Ebola. COURTESY: Sky News ((mandatory on-air credit)) (7 Oct 2014)

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035-c-15-(Alan Clendenning, AP correspondent)-“is in quarantine”-AP correspondent Alan Clendenning reports the World Health Organization confirms the first known transmission of the current outbreak of Ebola outside West Africa. (7 Oct 2014)

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038-c-13-(Alan Clendenning, AP correspondent)-“are being monitored”-AP correspondent Alan Clendenning reports officials are keeping an eye on people who had contact with the Ebola patient. (7 Oct 2014)

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APPHOTO AK102: A convoy transporting a Spanish nurse who believed to have contracted the ebola virus from a 69-year-old Spanish priest leaves Alcorcon Hospital in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. The nurse who treated a missionary for the disease at a Madrid hospital tested positive for the virus, Spain’s health minister said Monday. The female nurse was part of the medical team that treated the Spanish priest who died in a hospital last month after being flown back from Sierra Leone, where he was posted. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) (7 Oct 2014)

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APPHOTO PW105: Hospital staff members walk back into the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014 where a Spanish nurse who is believed to have contracted the ebola virus from a 69-year-old Spanish priest is being treated after testing positive for the virus. The hospital staff held a small protest and demanded the resignation of Health Minister Ana Mato for the handling of the case. Raising fresh concern around the world, the nurse in Spain became the first person known to catch Ebola outside the outbreak zone in West Africa. In Spain, the stricken nurse had been part of a team that treated two missionaries flown home to Spain after becoming infected with Ebola in West Africa. The nurse’s only symptom was a fever, but the infection was confirmed by two tests, Spanish health officials said. She was being treated in isolation, while authorities drew up a list of people she had had contact with. (AP Photo/Paul White) (7 Oct 2014)

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APPHOTO PW106: Hospital staff walk out past police guarding the entrance to protest outside the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014 where a Spanish nurse who is believed to have contracted the ebola virus from a 69-year-old Spanish priest is being treated after testing positive for the virus. The staff demanded the resignation of Health Minister Ana Mato for the handling of the case. Raising fresh concern around the world, the nurse in Spain became the first person known to catch Ebola outside the outbreak zone in West Africa. In Spain, the stricken nurse had been part of a team that treated two missionaries flown home to Spain after becoming infected with Ebola in West Africa. The nurse’s only symptom was a fever, but the infection was confirmed by two tests, Spanish health officials said. She was being treated in isolation, while authorities drew up a list of people she had had contact with. (AP Photo/Paul White) (7 Oct 2014)

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Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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