Spain Priest dies of Ebola

• Posted on August 13, 2014August 13, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, 75, the first European infected by a strain of Ebola that has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa, has died in hospital in Madrid, a spokeswoman for the city’s health authorities said on Tuesday.

The spokeswoman declined to say when Pajares, who was airlifted from Liberia on August 7 after contracting the disease while working for a non-governmental organization in the African country, had died. He worked in Africa for about five decades.

His expected return to Spain in September was to mark the end of his missionary work there.

The priest was being treated in the Carlos III hospital, where he had been in quarantine since his return from Africa.

The Health Ministry said he was being treated with the experimental drug ZMapp, manufactured by U.S. company Mapp Biopharmaceutical. Two U.S. aid workers infected by the disease have shown some signs of improvements since being given the drug.

Pajares was repatriated with co-worker Juliana Bohi, a nun who has tested negative for Ebola.

The Madrid hospital would not confirm if he had been given the drug at the time of his death.

His body will be cremated tomorrow to avoid any further public health risks, the hospital added.

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.’

–Reuters