Ebola: Spain on Alert After Man Admitted to Hospital With Fever

The southern Spanish city of Alicante has been put on Ebola alert after a young Nigerian man was admitted to a local hospital with symptoms of the virus.

Spanish health authorities activated alert protocols after the man displayed "several symptoms" of the deadly disease, including fever and vomiting. Tests later confirmed that the man is not infected with the virus.

The alert comes a week after a Spanish priest who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia died in a hospital in Madrid.

Father Miguel Pajares was the first European person to become infected by a strain of the virus, which has ravaged Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and spread to Nigeria.

Pajares, 75, was airlifted from Liberia to Spain on 7 August after he became infected with Ebola while working for an NGO in the West African country. He was flown to Europe for treatment with his co-worker Juliana Bohi, a nun, who has since tested negative for the disease.

UK Ebola scare

This week, a man who travelled from Lebanon to Britain sparked an Ebola scare in the UK after nurses at Weston General Hospital in Somerset mistakenly believed that he displayed symptoms of the disease.

Nurses isolated him in the hospital ward and later tests confirmed that he was not infected with Ebola.

A relative of the patient who was at the hospital at the time of the incident told the Bristol Post: "I thought 'oh my God' when I heard the doctors and nurses talking about Ebola, but I hadn't had any close contact with the patient they were examining.

"Once the hospital thought there could have been a risk, they reacted very quickly and I think it was the correct procedure."

A spokeswoman for Weston General Hospital said: "A patient came in from abroad and because of some of the symptoms they were displaying, the accident and emergency department were naturally very cautious.

"They followed all the correct procedures and the proper triaging. The patient was found not to have Ebola."

At least 1,145 people have died from Ebola, and several airlines have suspended flights to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, including British Airways, Emirates Airlines, Arik Air and ASKY Airlines.

From Wednesday, the Kenyan government will ban people from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone from entering its borders. The national carrier Kenyan Airways also confirmed that it will stop flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone from Wednesday.