Gloves may have infected Ebola victim
Print Edition
SPANISH health officials were yesterday investigating whether a nursing assistant infected with Ebola got the deadly disease by touching her face with Ebola-tainted protective gloves.
More than 3,400 people have been killed by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has hit Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia the hardest. The case of Spanish nursing assistant Teresa Romero has shown that health workers can contact Ebola even in highly sophisticated medical centers in Europe.
Dr German Ramirez of the Carlos III hospital in Madrid said Romero remembers she once touched her face with the gloves after leaving the quarantine room where an Ebola victim was being treated.
Health officials say Romero had twice entered the room of Spanish missionary Manuel Garcia Viejo, who died of Ebola on September 25. Ramirez said Romero believes she touched her face with the glove after her first entry.
Romero is the first person known to have caught the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa. She was said to be in stable condition yesterday.
In an interview published by Spain’s El Mundo newspaper, the woman said she followed safety protocols as part of the team treating the priests. She said by phone from quarantine she felt “better, a little bit better.”
Her husband, Javier Limon, is also quarantined at the hospital. He identified his wife in a video he sent to Spain’s Animal Rights Party pleading for people to support his drive to prevent authorities euthanizing the couple’s dog, Excalibur.
Dozens of animal rights activists outside the couple’s apartment complex yesterday morning scuffled with police, trying to prevent an ambulance and workers in white hazmat suits from taking Excalibur.
Two other people quarantined in Madrid, a nurse and a Spanish engineer who had been in Nigeria, were cleared after testing negative for Ebola.
The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation, meanwhile, reported that bodies of Ebola victims were being left in homes and on the streets of Freetown because of a strike by burial teams, who complained they had not been paid. The dead bodies of Ebola victims are highly contagious.
Madina Rahman, Sierra Leone’s deputy health minister, said on radio that the strike had been “resolved,” though organizers could not be reached to confirm it was over.
The burial teams make up a total of 600 workers organized in groups of 12, ministry spokesman Sidie Tunis said.
In neighboring Liberia, health workers said they planned to strike if their demands for more money and safety equipment were not met by the end of the week.
Liberia’s United Nations peacekeeping mission said yesterday that an international member of its medical team had contracted Ebola, the second member of the mission to come down with the disease. The first died on September 25.
The mission is identifying and isolating others who may have been exposed and reviewing procedures to mitigate risk, Karin Landgren, special representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in a statement.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
