Man dead in Macedonia, Ebola tests pending

The patient died in a hospital in the Macedonian capital Skopje on Thursday night, but health officials cautioned that an official diagnosis would likely take at least two more days.

"A British citizen on a business trip to Macedonia died," the country's health ministry said in a statement. "Because of his serious health condition at the moment he was admitted to the hospital, including vomiting and internal hemorrhage, as well as because of his sudden death, we believe he might have had symptoms of Ebola."

Samples from the deceased man were dispatched to a German laboratory, with tests expected to ascertain whether he had Ebola within the next 48 hours, according to Macedonia's health ministry.

The British Foreign Office said its employees were "aware of the reports and are looking into them."

Health officials did not name the victim, saying only that he was born in 1956.

A Macedonian government official told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity that another Briton had displayed similar symptoms and was also hospitalized. He said that both the men had been staying at a hotel in the capital, and that hotel staff and ambulance crew to come into contact with the men had been placed under quarantine.

The Ebola virus, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids from an infected person, has killed nearly 4,000 people in West Africa this year, the largest outbreak on record.

Spanish nurse's condition worsens, Ban urges 'action'

A Spanish nurse receiving treatment in Madrid, so far the only person known to have contracted Ebola outside of Africa, remained in isolation on Thursday evening.

"Her clinical situation has deteriorated but I can't give any more information due to the express wishes of the patient," a health official at the Carlos III Hospital where Teresa Romero is being treated said.

The European Commission asked the Spanish government to explain how Romero could have contracted Ebola at a high-security ward where she was treating known Ebola sufferers repatriated to Spain. Ruben Moreno, a spokesman for health with the ruling Popular Party (PP), said in a television interview that the nurse had admitted to touching her face with her protective gloves.

"It's obvious that the patient herself has recognized that she did not strictly follow the protocol," Moreno said.

Medical staff, however, complained about lacking equipment and information on the wards while caring for the two priests who contracted the virus in West Africa, and accused the government of trying to shift the blame onto Romero for a lapse in protocol. Another doctor, who cared for Romero and is now among a group of seven people in isolation in Madrid, said the sleeves on the protective suit he wore while handling her had been too short. He wrote a letter to healthcare authorities, published by national daily newspaper El Pais, where he described a 16-hour shift treating Romero during which he was not told she had the Ebola virus. He claimed to have learned this through the press.

Liberia delays elections

The current Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 3,900 lives, most of them in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma criticized the pace and scope of the global response on Thursday evening at the United Nations, saying "this slower-than-the-virus response needs to change."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said resources mobilized to fight the outbreak should be increased 20-fold.

"Cases are growing exponentially," Ban said. "Do not wait for consultation. Just take action."

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has postponed national senatorial elections, scheduled for Tuesday October 14, saying that there was currently no way to organize a "mass movement, deployment and gathering of people" without endangering lives.

msh/es (AFP, Reuters)