Spanish nurse tests positive to Ebola, Spanish health authorities confirm

The Spanish health minister, Ana Mato, has confirmed that a Spanish nurse who had been treating an Ebola patient in Madrid has been infected with the virus herself.

Mato also convened a crisis cabinet which was to meet this same evening.

Earlier on Monday, reports began to circulate that a nurse who was part of the team that treated Spanish missionary Manuel Garcia Viejo, who died of Ebola on 26 September, had twice tested positive to the disease, thus confirming that she was infected.

The nurse is the first case of contagion outside Africa. The healthworker was employed at Madrid's La Paz-Charles III hospital where she entered into contact with Garcia Viejo.

According to local daily ABC, she is thought to have had contact with between five or six persons, although her husband had not exhibited any symptoms.

The aforementioned hospital has treated two Ebola victims so far, both of whom later succumbed to the virus.