PARIS
A passenger who displayed symptoms of Ebola infection grounded an Air France flight in Madrid on Thursday.
A passenger complained of body aches and trembling, both symptoms of Ebola viral infection, the airline told Anadolu Agency (AA). The passanger, reportedly of Nigerian origin, took the Air France flight from Paris to Madrid.
There were 156 passengers on board, as well as two pilots and five crew members, according to Air France spokesperson Maxime Patula.
He said that the flight crew has notified the Spanish health authorities who carried out a medical examination of the passenger on arrival.
The plane has been disinfected and "as a precautionary measure, the passenger in question was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The other passengers were able to disembark normally," Patula said.
In France, French daily Le Parisien reported that a nurse "suspected of infection by the Ebola virus" was hospitalized Thursday afternoon at Begin hospital in the suburbs of Paris.
The daily says that the nurse, who is part of the medical team that treated a French MSF nurse infected by the virus, was suffering from a high fever and she was taken from her home by firefighters.
When contacted, the Health Ministry refused to comment as part of its policy, set last week, to not comment on suspected cases.
On Wednesday, French President Francois Hollande announced that France would set up a system to check passengers on flights from areas in which the epidemic is spreading.
The new measures will take effect starting next Saturday, said Health Minister Marisol Touraine on Thursday.
France joins Britain in being the only two European Union countries to announce checks for the virus at their main international airports. The United States and Canada have also taken this step.
In Brussels, EU health ministers meeting on Thursday to discuss measures to deal with the epidemic, vowed to improve coordinated action at entry points in European airports.
The World Health Organization said on October 14 that Ebola cases are likely to run to more than 9,000 in West Africa this week and the number of reported deaths had already reached 4,493.
Ebola is a deadly virus causing bleeding in the inner and outer parts of the human body. Once it spreads, it harms the immune system and internal organs, and, ultimately, the patient suffers uncontrollable bleeding.
The virus spreads through skin contact. It is spread by fluid from infected animals and through contact with contaminated needles or surfaces.
It gets its name from the Ebola River, which is close to a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the disease was first recorded.
It first appeared in Africa in 1976.
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