[HOSTED.AP.ORG] In the first known transmission of the current outbreak of Ebola outside West Africa, a Spanish nurse who treated a missionary for the disease at a Madrid hospital has tested positive for the virus, Spain's health minister said Monday.The female nurse was part of the medical team that treated a 69-year-old Spanish priest who died in a hospital last month after being flown back from Sierra Leone, where he was posted, Health Minister Ana Mato said. The nurse is believed to have contracted the virus from that priest.
The World Health Organization confirmed there has not been a previous transmission outside West Africa in the current outbreak. WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that so far there have only been confirmed cases in West Africa and the United States, and no known transmission outside West Africa. The organization is awaiting official notification of the case from Spanish authorities.
The woman went to the Alcorcon hospital in the Madrid suburbs with a fever on Sunday and was placed in isolation. Mato said the infection was confirmed by two tests.