Ebola Outbreak: Infected Nurse's Husband Quarantined in Spain

The husband of the Madrid nurse who became the first person outside of Africa to contract the deadly Ebola virus has been placed in quarantine.

The nurse was a member of the medical team at the Spanish capital's La Paz-Carlos III hospital that treated two missionaries who died from the tropical virus after returning from Sierra Leone in West Africa.

Mercedes Vinuesa, the head of Spain's public health service, confirmed to the Spanish parliament that the woman's husband was being kept in quarantine.

"The husband is already in hospital and is being monitored so that he can have a quarantine situation with better monitoring," he said.

A European Union spokesman also revealed the European Commission had delivered a letter to the Spanish health minister in order "to obtain some clarification" as to how the medical worker contracted the disease in light of safety precautions.

"The priority remains to find out what actually happened," he said.

The nurse who has caught Ebola is yet to be named but is believed to be in a stable condition.

It is reported that she departed on holiday following the death of the second missionary who had contracted the disease on 25 September.

Spanish officials confirmed that the nurse began to feel Ebola-like symptoms on 30 September but did not disclose where she went on holiday.