By now it should be clear to everyone that any myth that the Ebola epidemic, which has clearly gone global, is contained is about as real as the S&P 500 at 2000. And if it isn't, the latest confirmation came moments ago from BBC which reports [4]that a Spanish nurse who treated an Ebola victim in Madrid has contracted the virus herself in the first case of contagion outside Africa, health officials say. What is different about this case is that the nurse contracted the virus in Madrid while she was part of the team that treated Spanish priest Manuel Garcia Viejo, who died of Ebola on 25 September, despite being treated with the same drug regiment that previous is said to have worked on US Ebola patients.
The priest died in the hospital Carlos III de Madrid after catching Ebola in Sierra Leone. He was the second: another Spanish priest, Miguel Pajares, died in August after contracting the virus in Liberia.
The nurse was admitted to hospital on Monday morning with a high fever, Spanish newspaper El Pais said. Doctors isolated the emergency treatment room, the report said.
Once again questions emerge just how the virus is transmitted, because if the nurse, who obviously took every possible precation against the world's most dangerous virus that is supposedly non-airborne, contracted it, then it clearly leads to speculation that Ebola may be transmitted by means other than what the population is being told.
And while the media will surely try to downplay the seriousness of this latest contagtion, it will likely fail:
- SPANISH HEALTH OFFICIAL SAYS HEALTH WORKER WITH EBOLA STARTED TO FEEL SICK ON SEPT. 30
- SPAIN MONITORING 30 MED STAFF WHO WORKED WITH EBOLA PATIENT
- SPAINISH EBOLA PATIENT ENTERED ORIGINAL PATIENT'S ROOM TWICE
- SPAIN EBOLA PATIENT POSS HAD CONTACT W/OTHERS BEFORE SYMPTOMS
But the punchline:
- SPANISH HEALTH OFFICIAL SAYS HEALTH WORKER WITH EBOLA WENT ON HOLIDAY THE DAY AFTER SPANISH PRIEST DIED AND HAS BEEN ON HOLIDAY EVER SINCE
Well, good luck finding everyone she interacted with.
And if that wasn't enough, perhaps the safest and sleepiest city in the world, Mozart's birthplace, Salzburg, hours ago activated its emergency Ebola response after a 15 year old refugee from Liberia was exhibiting Ebola-like signs. From German ORF google-translated [5]:
In the Salzburg State Hospital, a 15-year-old from Liberia is examined for the Ebola virus infection. The young man was picked up on Monday night at the Wals. He claimed to have escaped alone.
In the Salzburg Federal Clinics (SALK) Monday had therefore first the existing emergency plan for the handling of a suspected Ebola are capitalized: The young refugee from Liberia had been taken up in a Flachgauer community. Since Liberia is a country affected by Ebola area, the young man was admitted immediately for evaluation in the country's hospitals. This was confirmed in the evening Salzburg hospital and health speaker Governor Deputy Governor Christian Stöckl (ÖVP).
And cue panic prevention mode:
"It is absolutely too early to speak of a suspected case. The patient must first be examined for possible symptoms throughout. However, the emergency plan has been activated as a precaution in the Salzburg Regional Hospital, and the case is treated as a suspected case. It has paid off, that a meticulous contingency plan for the entire country and in the state hospital in an Ebola-Team was established in the fall of last year by the Regional Health Directorate. The probability that there is an Ebola patient in the refugee may be small, but we have taken all measures to be fully prepared. The crisis team has gathered in a short time and will advise the next steps, resulting from the initial examination of the patient, "said Stoeckl.
Finally, all this is happening as America's own Ebola patient, Thomas Duncan, is in deteriorating, critical condition.
