MADRID, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy urged people to remain calm on Wednesday over the Ebola outbreak, while reporting on the first deadly virus case in the country to parliamentarians, reported El Pais.
"Let's be careful, let's be calm. I have great confidence in our professionals, we will handle this situation," the prime minister said.
Rajoy assured the lawmakers that "the Spanish health system is one of the best in the world" and asked them "to let professionals do their jobs," while admitting that the case is serious.
The prime minister also promised "to provide the most transparent information" and said that the most important thing for now is to help all the patients who had contact with the woman who contracted Ebola or the priest who died from the virus in a Spanish hospital.
On Monday, a nurse at a hospital in Madrid tested positive for Ebola after treating Spanish priest Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, who became infected with the Ebola virus, while serving at a Sierra Leone hospital and subsequently died on September 25. This was the first Ebola case in Europe during the current outbreak.
Five more people who may have contracted the disease have been hospitalized but none of them have tested positive for Ebola.
The European Commission has demanded that Spain provide an explanation of the first case of the Ebola infection in Europe.
So far, Spain has registered two Ebola-related deaths since the recent outbreak of the disease in West Africa.
In August, 75-year-old missionary Miguel Pajares died five days after having been flown to Spain from Liberia with symptoms of Ebola. His treatment with the experimental drug ZMapp was ineffective.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the death toll from the Ebola epidemic has surpassed 3,400, with 7470 infected.
There is no officially approved medication for the disease. However, several countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, are currently working on vaccines.
