A Spanish air force plane departed Wednesday for Liberia to fly home a 75-year-old Spanish missionary infected with Ebola, the first patient to be returned to Europe in a fast-spreading outbreak of the deadly disease.
The military Airbus A310, equipped overnight for a medical evacuation, took off for the west African country from Madrid’s Torrejon military air base at around 1:30 pm (1130 GMT), the defence ministry said in a Twitter message.
Miguel Pajares, a Roman Catholic priest, tested positive for Ebola at the Saint Joseph Hospital in Monrovia where he worked, according to the Spanish aid organisation he works for, Juan Ciudad ONGD.
Since breaking out earlier this year, the disease has claimed 932 lives and infected more than 1,700 people across west Africa, according to the World Health Organisation.
Other cases have been reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
The Spanish priest will be the first person infected in the African outbreak to be repatriated to Europe for treatment.
Two Americans who worked for Christian aid agencies in Liberia and were infected with Ebola while taking care of patients in Monrovia were brought back to the United States for treatment in recent days.
The Spanish patient, who has worked in Liberia for more than five decades, welcomed the news that he would be repatriated.
“This news has lifted my spirits, it is great, I am very happy. It is worth fighting on,” he told the online edition of daily Spanish newspaper ABC by telephone.
Ebola causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding. It is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for patients are most at risk.
The Spanish priest has been in quarantine at the Saint Joseph Hospital in Monrovia, along with five other missionaries, since the death on Saturday of the hospital’s director from Ebola.
Two other missionaries who were in quarantine at the same hospital along with Pajares — Chantal Pascale of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Paciencia Melgar Ronda of Equatorial Guinea — also tested positive for Ebola.
– ‘Dying from abandonment’ –
Juan Ciudad ONGD, which runs hospitals around the world, had asked the Spanish foreign ministry to fly out the two women along with Pajares.
Spain’s public health director, Mercedes Vinuesa, said the authorities were dealing only with a request for Spanish citizens for the moment.
“What the country is considering is the repatriation of Spaniards,” she told a news conference.
Spain’s health ministry said no decision had been taken on where the Spanish priest would be treated after his arrival.
During an interview broadcast on Monday, the Spanish missionary had said he and the other missionaries wanted to be be taken to Spain for treatment.
“I have a fever. I don’t have any appetite, I could go without eating anything, I have a lot of pain in my joints. I need help to move from one place to the other,” he told CNN en Espanol, a 24-hour Spanish-language news network.
The Spanish defence ministry said the Airbus A310 was equipped to safely transport three patients without risk of contagion if required to so.
Melgar Ronda, the infected missionary from Equatorial Guinea, said the situation in Liberia was extremely grave.
“Many people are dying. People are not being well cared for. There is no strong organisation to end this disease. There are insufficient means. Most people are dying from abandonment,” she said during an interview with Spanish public television TVE.