Madrid, Oct 9 (IANS/EFE) The condition of Spanish assistant nurse Teresa Romero, infected with Ebola virus disease in the first case of contagion outside Africa, has worsened over the past few hours, her brother told journalists Thursday.
Her brother Jose Ramon said Romero's condition had worsened and she had been put on a respirator.
The nurse, 44, has been receiving treatment since Monday at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital, where six other people, including her husband, are being held in quarantine.
A doctor, who treated her when she had the first symptoms, was the latest to be admitted to the hospital Thursday.
More than 50 other people who had some kind of contact with Romero are under observation in their homes, where they have been told to watch out for fever symptoms.
Romero was infected with the virus while taking care of two Spanish missionaries, Manuel Garcia Viejo and Miguel Pajares, who were repatriated last summer to Madrid from Sierra Leone and Liberia, respectively, and who died from the disease.
Officials said she entered Garcia Viejo's room twice, once to change a diaper and another time to disinfect the room after the missionary died.
She said she probably contracted the virus when she touched her face as she took off her protective suit after leaving the room.
The nurse is being treated with an antiviral and the antibodies of a nun who suffered the disease in Liberia and recovered.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with blood and bodily fluids of infected persons or animals, causing fever and severe bleeding.
Since the outbreak of the disease in West Africa last March, the most virulent known until now, there have been 3,439 known deaths from 7,492 cases, mainly in Guinea Conakry, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
--IANS/EFE
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