Spain Ebola Patient Gives Preliminary Negative Test for Virus

Bloomberg News

A Spanish nursing assistant who became the first person outside Africa to contract Ebola, gave a negative test for the virus as her condition continues to improve.

Teresa Romero, 44, will also have a second test to confirm the result, the government committee set up to handle Spain's efforts to contain the disease said in an e-mailed statement today. All 15 people in hospital quarantine because they had close contact with her continue to show no symptoms, the committee said.

Romero was diagnosed with Ebola on Oct. 6 after helping to care for two Spanish missionaries who contracted the illness in Africa and died in Carlos III hospital in Madrid where she worked and was then herself treated. Her Ebola diagnosis sparked a debate in Spain about the readiness of the country's health service after budget cuts and the adequacy of its procedures for containing the virus.

Two other patients at Carlos III who had given a preliminary negative test for Ebola have now also given a negative second test, the committee said. They are a person considered a 'low risk' contact with Romero who had developed a fever and a passenger who became ill while on an Air France flight to Madrid after traveling from Nigeria.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Penty in Madrid at cpenty@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net Robin Stringer, John Simpson