The EU said on Tuesday it has asked Spain to explain how a nurse treating Ebola patients in Madrid contracted the deadly disease, the first known case of transmission outside Africa.
The European Commission “sent a letter yesterday to the Spanish health minister to obtain some clarification” of how this had happened, despite all the precautions taken, a spokesman said.
“There is obviously a problem somewhere,” Commission spokesman Frederic Vincent said, at a time when all European Union member States are supposed to have taken measures to prevent an Ebola outbreak.
Tests confirmed that the nurse had been infected with the deadly virus that has killed more than 3,400 people in west Africa. Spanish health officials are now trying to find out whom she may have come into contact with and are monitoring 30 people — including her co-workers and husband — closely for symptoms of the deadly disease. The woman was part of a medical team at Madrid’s la Paz-Carlos III hospital .