The 44-year-old nurse is said to have contracted the virus while looking after an Ebola patient hospitalized in Madrid

Oct 7, 2014 06:48 GMT  ·  By

Earlier this week, a nurse in Spain was diagnosed with Ebola. What's worrying is that, according to doctors at the hospital of Alcorcón, where the nurse was diagnosed with the deadly disease, the 44-year-old contracted the virus in Madrid.

More precisely, the nurse, whose identity has not yet been shared with the public, is understood to have been exposed to the Ebola virus while looking after a patient admitted at the Carlos III Hospital in Spain's capital city.

This means that this 44-year-old Spanish nurse is the first person in the world to contract Ebola outside West Africa, where an epidemic has been killing people by the hundreds since last year's December.

How was this woman infected?

As mentioned, the Spanish nurse is believed to have been exposed to the deadly virus while helping treat an Ebola patient admitted at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital. This patient was a priest named Manuel Garcia Viejo.

By the looks of it, this Spanish priest became infected with Ebola while working as a missionary in Sierra Leone. He was flown back to Madrid towards the beginning of last month, and passed away on September 25.

Staff at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital say that, during the time when Manuel Garcia Viejo was looked after and treated for Ebola at this facility, the 44-year-old nurse only entered his room a couple of times, once following his death.

Besides, she was wearing two pairs of gloves, two pairs of glasses and two protective overalls at the time she interacted with the Ebola patient. Hence, specialists are having trouble figuring out how it happened that this women contracted the disease.

Admittedly, one other missionary and Ebola patient was admitted at the Carlos III Hospital around the same time as Manuel Garcia Viejo, and he too passed away shortly after returning from Liberia. However, the nurse never came into contact with this second man, identified as Miguel Pajares.

What is being done?

Daily Mail tells us that the 44-year-old nurse was diagnosed with Ebola by doctors at the hospital of Alcorcón. Shortly after medical staff here figured out what was wrong with her, the woman was taken to the Carlos III Hospital, where she was put in isolation.

Health officials are now trying to identify and locate the people that this woman came into contact with before being diagnosed and isolated. Once they find these people, they will test them and make sure that they are not infected with the deadly Ebola virus.

As explained by specialists, people can get Ebola by coming into contact with the bodily fluids of a person affected by this disease. Science is yet to come up with a treatment for this condition, and the only way to keep the virus from spreading is to isolate the folks affected by it.