Ebola nurse fighting for her life as crisis grows

A Madrid nurse infected with ebola fought for her life last night as across the world authorities tightened screening of travellers and contain public panic over the spread of contagion.

Seven more people turned themselves in late on Thursday to an ebola isolation unit in Madrid where Teresa Romero, the nurse whobecame the first person to contract ebola outside Africa, lay gravely ill.

Alarm about ebola’s spread around Europe grew as Macedonia said it was checking for the virus in a British man who died within hours of being admitted to hospital in the capital Skopje on Thursday. A Prague hospital was testing a 56-year-old Czech man with symptoms of the virus.

In Spain, recriminations mounted over Romero, who was infected in hospital as she treated two Spanish missionaries who had caught the fever in West Africa — where ebola has already killed around 4,000 people — and remained undiagnosed for days despite reporting her symptoms.

The seven new admissions included two hairdressers who had given Romero a beauty treatment before she was diagnosed with ebola, and hospital staff who had treated the 44-year-old nurse. The Carlos III hospital said they had all turned themselves in voluntarily to be monitored for signs of the disease.

Fears over lack of training and safety standards have left some staff at the hospital refusing to attend to possible ebola cases.

A hospital spokeswoman said there were now 14 people in the isolation unit on its sealed-off sixth floor, including Romero, her husband, and health workers who had cared for Romero since she was admitted on Monday.

Spanish labour unions accused the government of seeking to deflect the blame onto Romero for the failings of its health system, after the European Union asked Spain to explain how the virus could have been spread on a high-security ward.

International airport hubs including London and Washington have stepped up screening for the disease.

Authorities have also pleaded against hoaxes that could trigger dangerous public panic — as one man did on a US commercial flight Thursday, announcing to fellow travellers he was sick with ebola.

In France a public building was briefly evacuated in a Paris suburb on Thursday after a false alert was triggered when an African man felt ill.

Earlier, the arrival of a group of schoolchildren from Guinea triggered panic at a French school.

The United Nations and leaders of the ebola-stricken nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, urged world powers to turn their attention back to the African frontline, where a huge increase in aid was needed to stem the lethal tide.