Ebola Escapes Europe's Defenses; Pet Dog Must Die [View all]

[B2G]

MADRID — Oct 7, 2014, 2:04 PM ET
By BARRY HATTON and CIARAN GILES Associated Press


Health officials scrambled Tuesday to figure out how West Africa's Ebola outbreak got past Europe's defenses, quarantining four people at a Madrid hospital where a Spanish nursing assistant became infected. Determined to contain the spread of the deadly virus, they even announced plans to euthanize the woman's pet dog.

The first case of Ebola transmitted outside Africa, where a months-long outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people, is raising questions about how prepared wealthier countries really are.

For Europeans, a distant problem has arrived on their doorstep, and as Spanish health workers complain about inadequate equipment and poor training, the all-important tourism industry was showing its anxiety.

Medical officials in the United States, meanwhile, are retraining hospital staff and find-tuning infection control procedures after the mishandling of a critically ill Liberian man in Texas, where he could have exposed many others to the virus after being sent away by a hospital.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nurse-spain-ebola-raising-global-concern-26009821