Ebola claims its first European victim: Spanish priest dies in Madrid five days after being flown out of Liberia
- Miguel Pajares died at a Madrid Hospital after contracting Ebola in Liberia
- 75-year-old was brought to Spain last week in a specially-adapted plane
- Health officials had ordered an experimental drug to treat the priest
- It is unclear if he had received the treatment at the time of his death
- Comes as Liberia is set to receive doses of the treatment for two doctors
- They will become the first African patients to take the drug
Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, who has died in a Madrid Hospital after contracting the Ebola virus in Liberia
A Spanish priest who became the first person carrying the deadly Ebola virus to be brought back to Europe for treatment has died in a Madrid hospital.
Miguel Pajares, 75, died at the Carlos III Hospital, where he was being treated, a spokeswoman confirmed.
A convoy of medics in protective suits escorted the missionary back to Spain last week after he was repatriated on a specially-adapted Airbus plane from Liberia in west Africa.
Spain's Health Ministry said yesterday that it had obtained a course of the U.S.-made drug ZMapp over the weekend to treat the priest.
The Madrid hospital would not confirm if he had been treated with the drug at the time of his death.
Mr Pajares, had been treating patients infected with Ebola at a hospital in the Liberian capital, which the Catholic humanitarian group he works for runs.
He had worked as a missionary in Africa for nearly five decades and was due to return to Spain for good in September.
Speaking before he was flown back he said: 'I'd like to return because we have a very bad experience of what's happened here.
'We are abandoned. We want to go to Spain and be treated like people.'
The priest was brought back to Spain alongside a nun, who was also suspected of being infected with the virus.
However, she tested negative for the disease.
When the priest first arrived in Madrid, there were claims he was on a drip and was unable to walk unaided with his condition being described as stable.
Mr Pajares was working at a hospital in Liberia, which is run by a Catholic humanitarian group he is involved in
The missionary was flown back to Spain for treatment after he tested positive for the deadly virus, which is sweeping West Africa
It was said he wasn't showing signs of bleeding, which is a symptom of an advanced stage of the illness.
The priest's brother Emilio said he was 'worried but happy' about the transfer amid concerns within Spain that the nation's hospitals may not successfully contain the illness.
The priest's death comes after it has been confirmed that Liberia is set to receive doses of an experimental drug to treat the condition, which will be given to two sick doctors.
They will become the first African patients to receive the drug.
The U.S. government has put Liberian officials in touch with the California-based maker of ZMapp, Mapp Biopharmaceutical.
When the priest first arrived in Madrid, there were claims he was on a drip and was unable to walk unaided with his condition being described as stable
Speaking before he was flown back he said: 'I'd like to return because we have a very bad experience of what's happened here
The company said that in responding to a request from an unidentified West African country, it had ran out of its supply of the treatment.
The treatment is so new that it has not been tested for safety or effectiveness in humans and the company has said it would take months to produce even modest quantities.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed: 'The U.S. government assisted in connecting the government of Liberia with the manufacturer.
'Since the drug was shipped for use outside the US, appropriate export procedures had to be followed.'
When he was brought back to Spain last week, a convoy of vehicles escorted him to the King Carlos III hospital for treatment
He was flown back to Europe on a specially adapted plane provided by the Spanish Defence Ministry
Spain's Health Ministry said yesterday that it had obtained a course of the U.S.-made drug ZMapp over the weekend to treat the priest
In the past few weeks, the experimental drug was given to two American aid workers, Nancy Writebol and Dr Kent Brantly who were diagnosed with the disease while working at a hospital that treated Ebola patients.
It has now emerged that Mrs Writebol's husband David has now been quarantined after returning from Liberia.
Mr Writebol and two other missionaries are not showing any symptoms of the deadly virus but will be kept in isolation in Charlotte, North Carolina, for three weeks.
David Writebol, with his wife Nancy, who has been infected with the Ebola virus. Mr Writebol himself has now been quarantined
The three quarantined men will live in motor homes in their mission's RV park along with eight others, including six children, until they have gone three weeks since thier last contact with the infected.
They must stay three feet from each other at all times, and 'can't hug', Bruce Johnson, president of the SIM USA mission, said.
Mr Johnson said Mr Writebol looked glad to be back in the same country as his wife, despite not being able to visit her yet.
The Americans are said to be improving, but there is no way to know whether the drug helped or if they are getting better on their own, as others have as around 40 per cent of those infected with Ebola are surviving the current outbreak.
In Sierra Leone, patients are staying away from hospital wards, gripped with fear that they will contract the Ebola virus
A health worker cleans his hands before entering an Ebola screening tent at the Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone
But giving the drug to the Westerners, who were then airlifted back to their home countries has caused growing anger in Africa.
'There's no reason to try this medicine on sick white people and to ignore blacks,' said Marcel Guilavogui, a pharmacist in Conakry, Guinea.
'We understand that it's a drug that's being tested for the first time and could have negative side-effects. But we have to try it in blacks too.'
Health workers wear protective clothing and masks as they treat patients suspected to have the virus
An ambulance leaves an Ebola isolation unit carrying the bodies of Ebola victims to a burial site
Meanwhile some were using Twitter to demand that the drug be made available.
'We can't afford to be passive while many more die,' said Aisha Dabo, a Senegalese-Gambian journalist who was tweeting using the hashtag GiveUsTheSerum.
'That's why we raise our voice for the world to hear us.'
A Sierra Leone official said the country had not asked for the drug, but the other governments said they wanted any treatment that might help patients recover, despite the risks of unproven medicines.
'The alternative for not testing this is death, a certain death,' Liberia's information minister Lewis Brown said before the announcement.
Meanwhile Guinea has also said it wants some of the drug.
'Guinean authorities would naturally be interested in having this medicine,' said Alhoussein Makanera Kake, spokesman for the government committee fighting Ebola.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of a sick person.
It begins with symptoms including fever and sore throat and can escalate to vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding.
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