A Madrid
airport has activated emergency measures after a passenger arriving on
an Air France flight was suspected of having Ebola.
The
passenger on Air France 1300 from Lagos, Nigeria, had started shaking
during the flight which landed at Barajas International Airport in the
Spanish capital.
Air
France said the other passengers disembarked from the plane, which was
flying via Paris. The plane will now be disinfected and the return
flight has been cancelled.
The passenger on Air France 1300 from
Lagos, Nigeria, had started shaking during the flight which landed at
Barajas International Airport in the Spanish capital
Spain's
health ministry confirmed that an Ebola emergency protocol had been set
in motion but declined to give details. There had been 163 people on
board the flight.
Spain's
government has stepped up its response to suspected Ebola cases in the
wake of a health scare when a nurse in Madrid became the first person
outside Africa to become infected with the deadly disease in the current
outbreak.
Teresa Romero, was diagnosed with the virus last week and is still seriously ill but stable.
She had cared for two infected Catholic priests repatriated from West Africa and who later died.
Air France said the other passengers
disembarked from the plane, which was flying via Paris. The plane will
now be disinfected and the return flight has been cancelled
An ambulance arrives at Carlos III hospital bringing the suspected Ebola case from the Air France plane
Spanish
authorities said that a person who had been in contact with Ms Romero
and was being monitored remotely for signs of the disease would be
hospitalized, after developing a fever.
The
person was one of 68 considered to have a low risk of catching Ebola,
and are required to check their temperature regularly from home.
Another
15 people, including Romero's husband, are still under observation for
signs of Ebola in Madrid's Carlos III hospital where she is also being
treated, but have shown no symptoms.
Carlos III hospital manager Rafael
Perez Santamarina takes pictures with his mobile phone of the ambulance
carrying a suspected Ebola patient from an Air France plane that landed
at Madrid Barajas airport
An ambulance transporting a potential
Ebola virus carrier arrives at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid where
15 people are in quarantine as a precaution following the admission of
Spanish nurse Teresa Romero
The
World Health Organization estimates the death toll from the worst
outbreak of Ebola on record to have exceeded 4,400. It has called the
outbreak the 'most severe acute health emergency in modern times'.
West
Africa is the worst affected area. In Liberia more than 2,300 people
have died, while in Sierra Leone and Guinea stands at nearly 1,000 each.
The deadly virus has also reached Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and the United States but outbreaks have been contained so far.
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