EBOLA: WHAT WENT WRONG?

The case of a nurse infected when treating a dying patient in Spain has sprung controversy over health and safety protocols for Ebola. Staff at San Juan hospital in Alicante, where potential patients would be treated, have voiced their concern, too.

THE EYES of the world were on Spain this week as a Madrid nurse became the first person known to have contracted the deadly Ebola virus outside West Africa.

Teresa Romero, aged 44, is being treated in an isolation ward in Madrid's Carlos III hospital.

The auxiliary nurse had been helping care for missionary Manuel García Viejo, who contracted the disease in Sierra Leone and died on September 25 after being repatriated to Spain.

EU spokesman Fréderic Vincent, lamented that Sra Romero's ' is the first case of Ebola on European soil'.

"The priority for us and Spain is to find out how it happened," he said. "That hospital in Madrid, like all hospitals involved, is supposed to respect a strict protocol to avoid contamination.

"We are awaiting a report on what happened."

However, no official Spanish government statement had been provided as CBNews went to press yesterday (Thursday), even though the case was first reported on Monday.

Chief of internal medicine at La Paz hospital in Madrid, Germán Ramírez explained that the nurse had entered Sr García Viejo's room on two occasions and could have become infected as she was taking off her protective suit.

"She said she may have touched her face with part of the suit," he said.

Later, in the same interview, he stated that it could have been a glove that touched her face.

Speaking to El País newspaper on Wednesday by mobile phone from her isolation ward, Sra Romero said: "It could have happened as I was taking my suit off but I am not sure."

A health professional explained that medical staff who treat Ebola patients should be supervised at all times when taking their suits off but it appears this did not occur in Sra Romero's case.

Unions accused the Spanish government of transporting the deadly virus to Europe without guaranteeing the safety of its medical staff and the country at large.

Sra Romero stated on Wednesday that she was 'feeling a little better'. "I hope to be able to recover from this, I have to recover from this," she said.

NOT PREPARED

Medical professionals have denounced that the Spanish health service was seriously under prepared when two missionaries with Ebola where repatriated to Spain in August and September.

Doctors and nurses who had to treat the priests had not had proper training and equipment they were forced to use was substandard, medics reported.

Madrid's Carlos III hospital, where the patients have been treated, had been a leading centre in epidemics and infectious diseases with state-of-the-art facilities and leading specialists. But it was dismantled last year due to regional government cutbacks in order to turn the building into a hospital for mid and long-term inpatients.

The authorities had to then try to reestablish the infectious disease department in a very short time to deal with deadly Ebola.

According to the AME independent association of nurses in Madrid, healthcare professionals were only given a 45minute talk about how to put on and take off protective suits and accessories. They did not carry out training exercises, nor were they told how to perform tasks with Ebola patients.

Medics at Carlos III hospital claimed on Tuesday that the suits they are using are unsafe because they do not meet the requirements for Level 4 - the category for an Ebola infection.

They lamented that they have had to seal their gloves with duct tape, whereas Level 4 suits are completely impermeable and include breathing equipment.

In a chilling television interview on Wednesday evening, Madrid doctor Santiago Yus - who was due to look after Ebola sufferer Teresa Romero yesterday (Thursday) - explained that he would not be able do this without putting his own health at risk.

"We were shown how to put on the protective suit during a 40-minute talk," he said. "I haven't had enough training to be treating the patient."

He went on to say that Sra Romero's infection could have been avoided if better training had been given to medical professionals.

The doctor who treated Sra Romero when she was first admitted to hospital in a critical condition explained that he was not prepared to do so.

Juan Manuel Parra stated that he had put in a 16-hour stint to save the life of Sra Romero, who was in a critical condition - but the arms on his protective suit were too short.

Sr Parra said that the nurse was suffering chronic diarrhoea, vomiting and was coughing up mucus. He had had to take his suit off and on 13 times during this period.

Doctors and nurses demonstrated on Tuesday at hospitals around Spain, calling for the resignation of health minister Ana Mato over the failings.