Spanish Ebola patient stable in Madrid hospital

The first European infected by a strain of Ebola that has killed more than 932 people in West Africa, Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, was stable in a Madrid hospital yesterday after being airlifted from Liberia, health authorities said.

Pajares, 75, was working for a non-governmental organisation in Liberia and was repatriated along with his co-worker Juliana Bohi, a nun who has tested negative for the disease.

Liberia has declared a state of emergency over the crisis.

“The patients have arrived well, though a little disoriented. They are both now in quarantine,” Madrid health official Javier Rodriguez told a news conference.

The medical plane flown out to Liberia to bring Pajares and Bohi back to Spain touched ground at a military base in Madrid at 0600 GMT before the two were escorted by police motorbikes and cars to the Carlos III hospital.

The hospital has cleared the entire sixth floor to treat the two patients, the health union said.

Highly contagious, Ebola, which has no known cure yet, kills more than half of the people who contract it. (Reuters)