Nurse infected with Ebola in Spain cleared of disease

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish nurse infected with Ebola in Madrid while caring for a priest who later died of the virus has been cleared of the deadly disease after testing negative two times in a row, doctors said on Tuesday.

“We consider her cured of the Ebola virus by World Health Organization criteria,” said Jose Ramon Arribas, doctor at the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid where the nurse is being treated.

Teresa Romero, 44, was diagnosed with Ebola two weeks ago, becoming the first person to catch the disease outside West Africa in the current outbreak which has killed thousands in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The infection in a high-security ward caused recriminations in Spain, with health workers saying hospitals were not prepared to cope with an Ebola outbreak and staff had not received adequate training and equipment.

Romero tested negative twice with a 48-hour interval between examinations. She will not be discharged from hospital until she has fully recovered. Ebola can cause severe damage to vital organs like the kidneys and liver.

The virus spreads through contact with bodily fluids and can cause fever, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea.

Romero had cared for two priests repatriated from West Africa with the disease who later died. She was treated in an isolation unit at the hospital.

Her husband and 14 other people who came into contact with Romero were also sent to a special isolation unit in the hospital to be monitored for signs of Ebola, though none have so far shown any symptoms.

Romero was treated with a drip of human serum containing antibodies from Ebola sufferers who had survived the disease and other drugs which the government and doctors have declined to name.

(Reporting by Rodrigo de Miguel and Sonya Dowsett, Writing by Sarah White, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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