A Spanish nurse who treated an Ebola victim in Madrid has become the first person in the world to contract the deadly virus outside of Africa. The 44-year-old is said to have spent the last 15 years working at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital, where the two Spanish missionaries infected with Ebola died.

The woman, who was married, was part of the team that treated Spanish priest Manuel Garcia Viejo, who was brought back from Africa last month so that he could be treated for the deadly virus. Two separate tests confirmed that the woman, who has yet to be named, had contracted the disease.
Mr Viejo was a member of the Hospital Order of San Juan de Dios who worked in the Western city of Lunsar

Colleagues tonight [Oct. 6] expressed their surprise at news that the nurse, from Galicia in northwest Spain, had died from the virus, saying that there had been 'extreme' measures in place to protect hospital staff. One told Spanish daily El Pais that nurses were equipped with two protective overalls, two pairs of gloves and glasses. All medics had to use a special card to access the hospital's sixth floor - where the two men were treated.

The Carlos III Hospital was evacuated before the arrival of the first missionary, Miguel Pajares, who contracted the disease in Liberia, but not for Mr Viejo as the sixth floor had already been hermetically sealed. Mr Pajares, the first person in Europe to be treated for Ebola, died at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital in August despite receiving experimental drug ZMapp after he returned.
 
Mr Viejo died at the hospital the following month after contracting the virus in Sierra Leone.


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