Anger in Madrid as Spain grapples with Ebola
Fear and outrage have gripped Madrid’s hospital corridors and spilled out into the streets of the Spanish capital, where two priests died of Ebola last summer. One of their nurses emerged infected.
Lauren Frayer
DW.de
09.10.2014
Seven people were being kept in isolation at a hospital in northern Madrid on Thursday, including Teresa Romero Ramos, a 40-year-old nursing assistant who tested positive for the deadly virus that has killed thousands in West Africa. Her husband, three coworkers, an emergency room doctor who treated her, and her hairdresser were also in quarantine, some with suspected Ebola symptoms, some without, awaiting tests. More than 50 others were under observation, having their temperatures taken twice daily.
Spanish doctors and nurses have been holding daily protests against what they call shoddy safety measures, inadequate quarantine equipment and budget cuts to public health — all of which, they say, may have left them vulnerable to the deadly virus.
“They need to strengthen safety measures and put more faith in what we are doing, because we did not skip the protocol!” said Esther Quinones, a nurse and union representative who rallied outside her hospital, visibly shaken by the Ebola scare playing out in her profession and across her city.
Safety concerns
But that protocol may have been inadequate, says one of her colleagues.
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