Spanish doctors who treated Ebola patient quarantined

MADRID, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Two doctors in Madrid, Spain, who treated a nurse diagnosed with the Ebola virus are themselves quarantined and under observation, health officials said Thursday.

Neither has displayed signs of the virus, a spokesman at Madrid's Carlos III hospital said.

The nurse, Teresa Romero, cared for two people who later died of the virus. While her condition improved Wednesday, a regional health spokesman said, it was revealed she waited for eight hours at Alcoron hospital in Madrid, exposed to other patients and staff after her Ebola test was positive, before she was transferred to Carlos III hospital. She is the first person outside West Africa to contract the virus.

She may have been exposed to the virus while removing protective clothing, Dr. German Ramirez said.

A Carlos II hospital spokeswoman said Romero felt ill on Sept. 29, was directed to a medical department on Oct. 2, returned home and on Oct. 7 went by ambulance to Alcoron hospital for an Ebola test. A positive result came back within two hours, an Alcoron doctor said, but an Alcoron worker said it was eight hours before she was transferred to Carlos III hospital, where she is employed.

Five other people are now under hospital observation, and a total of 30 are being monitored.