Ebola in Spain: 30 people being monitored, 4 suspected cases in hospital

It emerged on Tuesday that four suspected Ebola patients are now in a hospital in Madrid, Spain after a nurse was confirmed as the first to be infected with the virus outside of West Africa. Officials also revealed that 30 people, including the nurse’s husband have been placed under surveillance.

Anger is however growing among nurses at the Carlos III hospital where the unnamed nurse worked over the effectiveness of the protective clothing given to the medical workers. They claim that the nurse was wearing protective clothing but still caught the virus.

The nurse had attended to Manuel Garcia Viejo, Spanish priest, who got infected in Sierra Leone and flown to home for treatment. Viejo died on September 25.

Spanish daily, El Pais, reports that some sources claim that the protective suits did not meet World Health Organisation (W.H.O) standards, arguing that the suits were permeable and without breathing gear.

Meanwhile, the W.H.O has warned that more cases may be diagnosed in Europe.

W.H.O's European director Zsuzsanna Jakab, as quoted by MailOnline, said: “Such imported cases and similar events as have happened in Spain will happen also in the future, most likely.

“It is quite unavoidable... that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel both from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around”.

She added: “It will happen. But the most important thing in our view is that Europe is still at low risk and that the western part of the European region particularly is the best prepared in the world to respond to viral hemorrhagic fevers including Ebola”.