Authorities compile list of people in contact with Ebola nurse and monitor husband

Spain has quarantined the husband of a Spanish nurse who has tested positive for the Ebola virus in the first known transmission outside West Africa.

Authorities are drawing up a list of other people who may have had contact with the nurse so that they can be monitored, public health director Mercedes Vinuesa told Parliament.

The nurse had helped treat a Spanish priest who died on September 25 in a Madrid hospital designated for treating Ebola patients. He had been flown home from Sierra Leone.

She was taken to hospital in Madrid yesterday. Ms Vinuesa said Spain had several therapies available and had begun applying them but gave no further details.

The nurse, whose name has not been released, was said to be in stable condition.

Her illness illustrates the danger healthcare workers face, not only in poorly equipped West African clinics, but also in the more sophisticated medical centres of Europe and the United States.

The unprecedented Ebola outbreak this year has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa, and become an escalating concern to the rest of the world.