BBC Online :
A prominent World Health Organization adviser has warned that more Ebola cases can be expected among medical staff – even in developed countries with modern health care systems.
Professor Peter Piot said he was not surprised that a Spanish nurse had contracted the disease.
The nurse, Teresa Romero, is the first person known to have contracted the deadly virus outside West Africa.
She treated two Spanish missionaries who died of Ebola in Madrid.
Ms Romero, a 40-year-old auxiliary nurse, had been part of a team of about 30 staff at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid looking after Manuel Garcia Viejo and Miguel Pajares when they were repatriated from Sierra Leone and Liberia respectively.
She remains in quarantine in the Spanish capital along with her husband and three other people.
A fifth person was admitted on Wednesday morning with a slight fever. She is said to be a friend of Ms Romero and, like her, an auxiliary nurse in the Carlos III Ebola care unit.
In all, more than 50 people in Spain are under observation.
Ms Romero told Spain’s El Mundo’s newspaper on Wednesday that she had followed the correct protocol and had “no idea” how she had become infected. She said she was feeling “a little better” but was very tired.
Officials say earlier she had twice gone into Garcia Viejo’s hospital room, first to treat him and later to disinfect the room after his death.
The BBC’s Lucy Williamson in Madrid says hospital staff reported scenes of panic at work on Tuesday, with some people crying and others leaving the premises.
Spanish media say neighbours of the infected nurse have been calling emergency services, asking how to protect their children after sharing lifts and public spaces.
Promising “total transparency”, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appealed for calm while at the same time urging vigilance.
“Let the professionals do their work. Spain’s health system is one of the best in the world,” he told parliament on Wednesday.
In another development, the woman’s husband, Javier Limon, is reported to be fighting a court order to have their pet dog put down over fears that it could be carrying the disease. Animal rights groups have also criticised the move, saying there is no evidence that Ebola has been spread by dogs.
Some 3,400 people have died in the current Ebola outbreak with most of the deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
There have been nearly 7,500 confirmed Ebola infections worldwide, with officials saying the figure is likely to be much higher in reality.
The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says that from the start of the epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasised the impoverished health care systems of the countries hardest hit: Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
Teresa Romero’s husband Javier Limon Romero, made a video appeal to save their dog, Excalibur
Its experts have insisted that modern hospitals with rigorous disease control measures would prevent infection – but our correspondent says the case of the Madrid nurse proves that is far more difficult than many thought.
Professor Piot, a world specialist in Ebola brought in by the WHO as a scientific adviser, warned that even the simplest movement, like rubbing your eyes, is a risk.
“The smallest mistake can be fatal,” he said.
“For example, a very dangerous moment is when you come out of the isolation unit you take off your protective gear, you are full of sweat and so on.”
Professor Piot said he was not surprised by the case of the nurse in Madrid and expected more cases in Europe and the US, although he did not expect to see the illness spread as rapidly as it has in Africa.
Many of those who have died of Ebola in West Africa have been health care workers.
Liberia’s ambassador to the US, Jeremiah Sulunteh, told the BBC more treatment centres and ambulances were desperately needed.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned of dire consequences for economies in the region if the virus continues to spread.
