Spanish Ebola patient's doctor lays out procedure shortfalls
A doctor who cared for the Spanish woman infected with the Ebola said the sleeves on his protective suit were too short, highlighting weaknesses in treatment protocol that may have led to the first known case of transmission outside Africa.
Juan Manuel Parra, an emergency-room doctor at Alcorcon hospital on the outskirts of Madrid, treated the patient for 16 hours on Oct. 6, he said in a statement. During that period her condition deteriorated, with significant vomiting and diarrhea, according to the statement. Ebola, an often-fatal viral infection, is transmitted by contact with bodily fluids.
The case has cast a spotlight on the quality of emergency procedures in Spain against a background of cutbacks in medical services. The woman, a nursing assistant, became infected while helping with the treatment of two missionary doctors who died of Ebola in Madrid after being repatriated from Africa.
Hospital staff congregated last night outside the Carlos III hospital in Madrid where the nursing assistant is being treated to express support for her and their outrage at what they see as the damage done to the health service under budget cuts by the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
"I have to be here to show support for my colleague who will be scared and vulnerable but also for the profession I've been in for the past 37 years," said Margarita Tejara, 58, a nurse from a hospital in Getafe on the outskirts of Madrid. She said staff at her hospital only received protocols two days ago on how to treat suspected Ebola patients.
'Highly Unlikely'
More than 8,000 people have been infected and 3,800 have died in this year's Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. A Liberian man who went to Dallas and was diagnosed with the virus died Oct. 7. Aid workers who have become infected in Africa have been evacuated to the U.K., Spain, France, Germany and Norway.
An epidemic in Europe is "highly unlikely" because surveillance and health systems will prevent an outbreak, the European Union said this week.
The nursing assistant believes she may have contracted the disease when she removed a protective suit. It's possible her gloves touched her face, said German Ramirez, one of the doctors treating her, at a news conference at the Carlos III hospital yesterday.
Rajoy has appealed for calm, saying health professionals should be given the chance to do their work of treating the patient and containing the disease. He said in congress yesterday that the Spanish health service remains one of the best in the world.
Isolation Room
In his statement, Parra said the patient was in an isolation room when he came on duty at 8 a.m. on Oct. 6. He said more time was needed to extract a sample for her Ebola test than was prudent.
He said he became aware of the possibility of a positive first test at about 5 p.m., at which point he switched to a higher-specification protective suit whose sleeves were too short. He only learned that she had tested positive for Ebola from the media after he had treated her, he said.
He said an ambulance to take her for specialist treatment at the Carlos III hospital arrived at midnight. In total, he entered her room at the Alcorcon hospital more than 12 times.
To contact the reporters on this story: Charles Penty in Madrid at cpentybloomberg.net; Macarena Munoz in Madrid at mmunoz39bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vrootbloomberg.net; Elisa Martinuzzi at emartinuzzibloomberg.net Phil Serafino, Thomas Mulier