The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the US is fighting for his life in hospital and does not seem to have been given any experimental medicines used to treat previous patients. 
 
 American doctors and aid workers have survived the disease after being given the drug ZMapp, although it is impossible to tell whether it cured them or their recovery was caused by other factors, but Thomas Duncan has not received it. 
 
 He became ill after arriving in Texas from Liberia two weeks ago, heightening fears that the deadly virus could spread from West Africa, where the epidemic started in March and has since killed more than 3,400 people. 
 
 Dr Thomas Frieden, director of America's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told CNN Mr Duncan was "fighting for his life" at a hospital in Dallas, Texas. 
 
 He said doses of ZMapp were “all gone” and that the drug, produced by US-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical, is “not going to be available anytime soon.” 
 
 A second experimental drug, made by Canada's Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp, “can be quite difficult for patients to take,” he said, adding that the doctor and the patient's family would decide whether to use it. 
 
 “As far as we understand, experimental medicine is not being used,” Dr Frieden said. “It's really up to his treating physicians, himself, his family what treatment to take.” 
 
 A hazmat team member arrives to clean a unit at the Ivy Apartments, where the Mr Duncan was staying 
 
 He added that it was "concerning" that doctors at the hospital he visited days before being admitted failed to diagnose Ebola, instead sending him home with antibiotics. 
 
 The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas confirmed that Mr Duncan was in a critical condition on Monday as the operation to trace anyone who may have had contact with him continues. 
 
 None of the 38 people being monitored have yet shown any symptoms, which are similar to a cold or flu in the early stages before Ebola develops into vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding. 
 
 Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva and an expert said the chance of it spreading in the US were small. 
 
 In pictures: Ebola virus 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 62 show all In pictures: Ebola virus 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1/62 Ebola virus A health worker from Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 carries the corpse of a child in Freetown 
 
 2/62 Ebola virus A health workers from the Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 is sprayed with desinfectant after removing a corpse from a house in Freetown 
 
 3/62 Ebola virus Health workers from Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 prepare to remove a body from a house in Freetown AFP 
 
 4/62 Ebola virus Health workers from the Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 place a body in a grave at King Tom cemetary in Freetown 
 
 5/62 Ebola virus Mustapha Rogers of the Red Cross talks as health workers from the Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 remove a corpse from a house in Freetown 
 
 6/62 Ebola virus A citizen from Mali arrives at a hospital in Murcia city, south-eastern Spain. The protocol for a possible case of Ebola has been activated as the man, who arrived from Mali to Jumilla town in Murcia province five days ago, presents clinical symptoms of high fever and vomiting EPA 
 
 7/62 Ebola virus Kenyan medical workers show how to handle an infected Ebola patient on a portable negative pressure bed at the Kenyatta national hospital in Nairobi Getty Images 
 
 8/62 Ebola virus A health worker sprays disinfectant onto a college in Monrovia, Liberia AP 
 
 9/62 Ebola virus A burial team in protective gear bury the body of a woman suspected to have died from Ebola virus in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 10/62 Ebola virus Healthcare workers in protective gear work at an Ebola treatment center in the west of Freetown, Sierra Leone AP Photo/Michael Duff 
 
 11/62 Ebola virus A healthcare worker in protective gear is sprayed with disinfectant after working in an Ebola treatment center in the west of Freetown, Sierra Leone 
 
 12/62 Ebola virus A member of the NGO U Fondation leaves a house after visiting quarantined family members suffering from the Ebola virus in Monrovia 
 
 13/62 Ebola virus An Ebola sign placed infront of a home in West Point slum area of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 14/62 Ebola virus A Liberian man carries his sick brother suspected of having Ebola after being delayed admission to the Island Clinic Ebola Treatment Unit due to a lack of beds at the clinic on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 15/62 Ebola virus Health workers remove the body a woman who died from the Ebola virus in the Aberdeen district of Freetown, Sierra Leone 
 
 16/62 Ebola virus A health worker fixes another health worker's protective suit in the Aberdeen district of Freetown, Sierra Leone 
 
 17/62 Ebola virus Health workers spray themselves with chlorine disinfectants after removing the body a woman who died of Ebola virus in the Aberdeen district of Freetown, Sierra Leone 
 
 18/62 Ebola virus A woman crawls towards the body of her sister as Ebola burial team members take her sister Mekie Nagbe (28) for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 19/62 Ebola virus Sophia Doe sits with her grandchildren Beauty Mandi, 9 months (L) and Arthuneh Qunoh, 9, (R), while watching the arrival an Ebola burial team to take away the body of her daughter Mekie Nagbe, 28, for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 20/62 Ebola virus Varney Jonson (46) grieves as an Ebola burial team takes away the body of his wife Nama Fambule for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 21/62 Ebola virus Family members grieve as Ebola burial team members prepare to remove the body of Nama Fambule for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 22/62 Ebola virus A Liberian burial squad carry the body of an Ebola victim in Marshall, Margini county, Liberia 
 
 23/62 Ebola virus An Ebola burial team dresses in protective clothing before collecting the body of a woman (54) from her home in the New Kru Town suburb of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 24/62 Ebola virus An Ebola burial team carries the body of a woman (54) through the New Kru Town suburb of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 25/62 Ebola virus An Ebola burial team dresses in protective clothing before collecting the body of a woman (54) from her home in the New Kru Town suburb of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 26/62 Ebola virus Health workers in protective gear carry the body of a woman suspected to have died from Ebola virus, from a house in New Kru Town at the outskirt of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 27/62 Ebola virus Volunteers in protective suit bury the body of a person who died from Ebola in Waterloo, some 30 kilometers southeast of Freetown FLORIAN PLAUCHEUR/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 28/62 Ebola virus Nowa Paye (9) is taken to an ambulance after showing signs of the Ebola infection in the village of Freeman Reserve, about 30 miles north of Monrovia, Liberia 
 
 29/62 Ebola virus Medical staff members burn clothes belonging to patients suffering from Ebola, at the French medical NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Monrovia PASCAL GUYOT/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 30/62 Ebola virus A medical staff member wearing a protective suit walks past the crematorium where victims of Ebola are burned in Monrovia 
 
 31/62 Ebola virus A Liberian burial team wearing protective clothing loads the body of a 60-year-old Ebola victim after retrieving him from his home Getty Images 
 
 32/62 Ebola virus Sick women rest while hoping to enter the new Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment center near Monrovia, Liberia Getty Images 
 
 33/62 Ebola virus Hanah Siafa walks in the rain with her children Josephine, 10, and Elija, six, while waiting to enter the new Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia Getty Images 
 
 34/62 Ebola virus UNICEF health workers walk through the streets, going house to house to speak about Ebola prevention in New Kru Town, Liberia. The virus has killed more than 1,000 people in four African countries Getty Images 
 
 35/62 Ebola virus Local residents watch as public health advocates stage an Ebola awareness and prevention event in Monrovia, Liberia Getty Images 
 
 36/62 Ebola virus Public health advocates stage an Ebola awareness and prevention event in Monrovia, Liberia. The Liberian government and international groups are trying to convince residents of the danger and are urging people to wash their hands to help prevent the spread of the epidemic Getty Images 
 
 37/62 Ebola virus Hanah Siafa lies with her children Josephine, 10, and Elija, six, while hoping to enter the new Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment center Getty Images 
 
 38/62 Ebola virus A health worker examines patients for Ebola inside a screening tent, at the Kenema Government Hospital AP 
 
 39/62 Ebola virus A health worker cleans his hands with chlorinated water before entering an Ebola screening tent at the Kenema Government Hospital, about 86 miles from Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown AP 
 
 40/62 Ebola virus Aid workers and doctors transfer Miguel Pajares, a Spanish priest who was infected with the Ebola virus while working in Liberia, from a plane to an ambulance as he leaves the Torrejon de Ardoz military airbase, near Madrid, Spain AP Photo/Spanish Defense Ministry 
 
 41/62 Ebola virus A Liberian money exchanger washes hands between customers as a precaution to prevent infection with the deadly Ebola virus while conducting business in downtown Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 42/62 Ebola virus A Liberian health worker sprays disinfectant on a drivers boots to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus at the Christian charity Samaritan Purse head offices in Monrovia, Liberia. Over 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa in 2014 making it the world's deadliest outbreak to date according to statistics from the World Health Organisation EPA 
 
 43/62 Ebola virus A Liberian taxi driver wears protective gloves as a precaution to prevent infection with the deadly Ebola virus whilst driving in downtown Monrovia, Liberia. Many Liberians have taken to wearing gloves and washing hands after every interaction in an attempt to curb the spread of the deadly virus EPA 
 
 44/62 Ebola virus A Liberian money exchanger wears protective gloves as a precaution to prevent infection with the deadly Ebola virus while transacting business with customers in downtown Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 45/62 Ebola virus A woman from Liberia takes food to a sick relative in the Ebola isolation unit at the ELWA Hospital where US doctor Kent Bradley is being quarantined having contracted the Ebola virus. Over 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa in 2014 making it the world's deadliest outbreak to date according to statistics from the World Health Organisation EPA 
 
 46/62 Ebola virus The disease has now spread to Liberia and, for the first time, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, killing at least 672 people in 1,201 cases, according to the World Health Organisation’s latest figures AP 
 
 47/62 Ebola virus Health specialists prepare for work in an isolation ward for patients at the Medecins Sans Frontieres facility in southern Guinea AFP/Getty Images 
 
 48/62 Ebola virus A Liberian street vendor wears protective gloves as a precaution to prevent infection with the deadly Ebola virus while transacting business with customers in downtown Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 49/62 Ebola virus A nurse from Liberia sprays preventives to disinfect the waiting area for visitors at the ELWA Hospital where a US doctor Kent Bradley is being quarantined in the hospitals isolation unit having contracted the Ebola virus, Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 50/62 Ebola virus Staff of the 'Doctors without Borders' ('Medecin sans frontieres') medical aid organisation carry the body of a person killed by the virus 
 
 51/62 Ebola virus A Liberia man (right) talks to a nurse (left) about the health of his relative who is in the isolation unit of the ELWA Hospital where a US doctor Kent Bradley is being quarantined having contracted the Ebola virus, Monrovia, Liberia EPA 
 
 52/62 Ebola virus A nurse from Liberia walks to spray preventives to disinfect the waiting area for visitors at the ELWA Hospital where a US doctor Kent Bradley is being quarantined in the hospitals isolation unit having contracted the Ebola virus EPA 
 
 53/62 Ebola virus Staff of the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse put on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia AFP 
 
 54/62 Ebola virus Lagos State Health Commissioner Jide Idris, speaks, during a news conference in Lagos, Nigeria. No one knows for sure just how many people Patrick Sawyer came into contact with the day he boarded a flight in Liberia, had a stopover in Ghana, changed planes in Togo, and then arrived in Nigeria, where authorities say he died days later from Ebola AP Photo/Sunday Alamba 
 
 55/62 Ebola virus Staff of the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse put on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. An American doctor battling West Africa's Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease in Liberia, Samaritan's Purse said AP 
 
 56/62 Ebola virus Protective gear including boots, gloves, masks and suits, drying after being used in a treatment room in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia AFP 
 
 57/62 Ebola virus A Liberian man holding a Civet being sold on a roadside as bush meat in Lofa County. Bush meat is one of the major carriers of the Ebola virus. The Liberian government and International partners have warned people to not eat it. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that a total of 888 Ebola cases including 539 deaths have been recorded in West Africa since February AFP 
 
 58/62 Ebola virus People unload protection and healthcare material at Conakry's airport, to help fight the spread of the Ebola virus and treat people who have been already infected AFP/Getty Images 
 
 59/62 Ebola virus Body of evidence: health workers transport a casket of a nun whose death resulted from an Ebola infection in Zaire in 1995 Getty 
 
 60/62 Ebola virus Peter Piot in Yambuku, northern Congo (then Zaire), in 1976, where he was part of the original team to discover the Ebola virus J Breman 
 
 61/62 Ebola virus A member of Doctors Without Borders helps to unload protection and healthcare materials in Guinea Getty 
 
 62/62 Ebola virus Doctors in protective gear work inside the Medecins Sans Frontieres isolation ward as Guinea faced the worst ever outbreak of the Ebola virus Getty Images 
 
 Dr Edward Wright, a virology expert at the University of Westminster who is currently testing a possible Ebola vaccine in Oxford, told The Independent that because Mr Duncan was not showing symptoms until shortly before he went into hospital, he was not a high risk. 
 
 “The reason the virus is causing such a problem in West Africa is because the world was notified too late to provide the medical infrastructure needed to stop the spread, but in the US and Europe it’s already in place," he added. 
 
 In Nebraska, another hospital was preparing for the arrival of an Ebola patient who contracted the virus in Liberia. 
 
 The American man, expected to arrive on Monday, has not been officially identified but is believed to be Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman for NBC News who contracted Ebola in Liberia. 
 
 Additional reporting by Reuters ||||| Public Health 
 
 No, Seriously, How Contagious Is Ebola? 
 
 Adam Cole/NPR 
 
 Update on Oct. 8: The Ebola patient in Dallas, the first diagnosed with the virus in the U.S., has died. 
 
 Holy moly! There's a case of Ebola in the U.S.! 
 
 That first reaction was understandable. There's no question the disease is scary. The World Health Organization now estimates that the virus has killed about 70 percent of people infected in West Africa. 
 
 The Ebola case in Dallas is the first one diagnosed outside Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. And the health care system in Texas didn't quarantine the man right away. He was sick with Ebola — and contagious — for four days before he was admitted to the hospital. 
 
 But when you look at health officials responding to the case in Dallas, they seem cool as cucumbers, despite the initial misstep. 
 
 "I have no doubt that we will control this importation, or case, of Ebola so that it does not spread widely in this country," said the director of the CDC, Dr. Tom Frieden. 
 
 Why is Frieden so sure this virus won't spread beyond a handful of cases? 
 
 It boils down to something called "R0." 
 
 The reproduction number, or "R nought," is a mathematical term that tells you how contagious an infectious disease is. Specifically, it's the number of people who catch the disease from one sick person, on average, in an outbreak.* 
 
 Take, for example, measles. The virus is one of the most contagious diseases known to man. It's R0 sits around 18. That means each person with the measles spreads it to 18 people, on average, when nobody is vaccinated. (When everyone is vaccinated, the R0 drops to essentially zero for measles). 
 
 At the other end of the spectrum are viruses like HIV and hepatitis C. Their R0s tend to fall somewhere between 2 and 4. They're still big problems, but they spread much more slowly than the measles. 
 
 And that brings us back to Ebola. Despite its nasty reputation, the virus's R0 really isn't that impressive. It typically sits around 1.5 to 2.0. 
 
 Even in the current epidemic in West Africa, where the virus has been out of control, each person who has gotten sick has spread Ebola to only about two others, on average. 
 
 Why is that? 
 
 Many factors contribute to the R0, such as how long you're infectious** and how many virus particles are needed to make another person sick. 
 
 But in Ebola's case, the mode of transmission probably helps keep its R0 low. Ebola isn't spread through the air, like the measles or flu. It requires close contact with some bodily fluid, such as blood or vomit, containing the virus. 
 
 Now at this point, you're probably thinking, "OK. But an R0 of 2 is nothing to brush off." You're right. R0 of 2 means one person infects two people, who then infect four people, then eight, 16, 32 — the numbers go up fast. 
 
 But that isn't likely to happen in a place with a good public health system, like the U.S. Why? Because people with Ebola aren't contagious until they show symptoms. 
 
 So to stop the chain of transmission, all health workers in Texas have to do is get the people possibly infected by the sick man into isolation before these people show signs of Ebola. 
 
 Then R0 drops to zero. And Texas is free of Ebola. 
 
 *We're talking the "basic" R0 here, for all you epidemiologists. So, the R0 that you get when everyone in the population is susceptible to the disease. 
 
 **The R0 is integrated over the time that a person is infectious to others. For HIV, this could be years. But for Ebola, that time is only about a week. So even though they have similar R0s, Ebola's infections per unit of time is much higher than HIV's. ||||| The first man diagnosed with Ebola in the US is begin treated with an experimental medication, officials say, after announcing on Sunday that he is “fighting for his life”. 
 
 The Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas said on Monday that Thomas Eric Duncan began receiving the experimental antiviral drug brincidofovir, made by North Carolina-based biopharmaceutical company Chimerix, on Saturday. 
 
 Duncan’s condition worsened over the weekend, and on Monday the hospital said he remains in critical but stable condition. 
 
 “Based on in-vitro data from work conducted by the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, we are hopeful that brincidofovir may offer a potential treatment for Ebola during this outbreak,” Dr Michelle Berrey, the president and CEO of Chimerix, said in a statement. 
 
 She said requests for the drug were made by treating physicians. The company received federal approval to use the drug, which is in late-stage testing. 
 
 Earlier on Monday, the fifth American to contract Ebola in west Africa landed in Omaha for treatment, while officials in Spain announced a nurse in Madrid had become the first person to contract the disease outside Africa. 
 
 
 
 A specially equipped plane carrying Ashoka Mukpo, an US journalist who contracted the disease while covering the outbreak in Liberia, landed at Eppley airfield in Omaha. Mukpo was then taken by ambulance to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he will be treated in a biomedical isolation unit – the largest in the country. 
 
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 Mukpo was working in Liberia as a freelance cameraman for NBC News when he tested positive last week. As a precautionary measure, the crew he was working with will remain in isolation for 21 days, the incubation period for the disease. The quarantined team includes the NBC News chief medical editor, Dr Nancy Snyderman. 
 
 Duncan, from Liberia, is in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian, which announced on Saturday that his condition had changed from serious to critical. He was diagnosed last Tuesday and placed immediately in isolation. However, days prior, he went to the hospital complaining of symptoms similar to Ebola, and told the on-duty nurse that he had travelled from Liberia. This information was not relayed to the prescribing doctor, who sent the man home with a course of antibiotics. 
 
 On Monday, the Texas governor, Rick Perry, announced the creation of a task force charged with improving the state’s preparedness for infectious diseases. The creation of the task force comes as officials are trying to restore confidence after the hospital’s missteps in diagnosing the nation’s first Ebola patient. 
 
 
 
 “There were mistakes made,” Perry told reporters at the press conference. He added: “But I stand by the fact that the process is working. We don’t have an outbreak. We have one event that is being handled properly.” 
 
 The hospital’s misstep prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to update its guidelines for hospitals receiving patients who are displaying symptoms of Ebola, which can include high fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding. 
 
 Health officials in Dallas are currently monitoring 50 people whom they believe may have come into contact with Duncan before he was isolated, the majority of whom are of very low concern. Nine people are considered “high risk”, among them his girlfriend and her family who lived in the apartment where he stayed. The family was moved to a donated residence over the weekend where they will remain under quarantine for the duration of the 21-day incubation period. None of the 50 individuals under observation has displayed any symptoms. 
 
 So far, five Americans diagnosed with Ebola in west Africa have been repatriated for treatment including three missionaries, a World Health Organisation doctor and, most recently, the NBC News freelance cameraman. The three missionaries have recovered, and the WHO doctor is still being cared for at Emory University hospital in Atlanta. 
 
 Mukpo will be treated at the same hospital as Dr Rick Sacra, 51, a Boston obstetrician and Ebola survivor who contracted the disease while treating patients as a medical missionary at a hospital in Liberia. At the hospital, Sacra was treated with an experimental drug called TKM-Ebola, which is made by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals. He also received a “convalescent serum” made of the antibodies taken from the blood of fellow missionary Dr Kent Brantly, the first-ever Ebola patient treated in the US. 
 
 When a patient recovers from Ebola, that person develops antibodies that last for at least 10 years, according to the CDC. It’s not yet known if those who recover develop a lifetime immunity from the disease or if it’s possible for them to become infected with a different strain of Ebola. Some health officials believe the blood of survivors may help Ebola stricken patients fight the disease. 
 
 Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who worked for the same aid group in Liberia, were treated together at Emory where they received doses of the untested, experimental drug ZMapp, which has since been depleted. 
 
 
 
 Drug makers and pharmaceutical companies are doing their best to ramp up production of these drugs; and health agencies have pledged to fast-track the testing process. But even so, it could take months before new doses are available for Ebola sufferers. There are also multiple vaccines in trial phases. 
 
 “The drug pipeline is going to be slow, I’m afraid,” the CDC director, Tom Frieden, told NBC’s Meet the Press. “The most promising drug, ZMapp, there’s no more of it, and it’s hard to make, it takes months to make just a bit.” ||||| Dec. 31 -- David Readerman, portfolio manager at Endurance Capital, and Bloomberg's Sarah Frier discuss Apple getting criticized by investors for their lack of diversity in high-profile roles. They speak to Bloomberg's Cory Johnson on "Bloomberg West." 
 
 Dec. 31 -- David Readerman, portfolio manager at Endurance Capital, discusses the top tech trends in 2016 and the winners and loser of 2015. He speaks to Bloomberg's Cory Johnson on "Bloomberg West." 
 
 Dec. 31 -- Matt Faustman, chief executive officer and co-founder of UpCounsel, discusses the real impact of lawsuits on the on-demand industry and on the tech industry. He speaks to Bloomberg's Cory Johnson on "Bloomberg West." 
 
 Dec. 31 -- Julia Weinberg, head of content and partnership at Delectable, discusses the company's mobile app that teaches people about wine and champagne, how it works and their new app, Banquet. She speaks to Bloomberg's Cory Johnson on "Bloomberg West." 
 
 What to Drink on New Year's Eve 
 
 A couple was out for a hike in Malibu on New Year's Day when they ended up becoming heroes for an injured man. 
 
 California's crab ban has been lifted in some parts of the state, but there's no such luck for residents and fisherman along the Monterey Bay. 
 
 The worst recorded Ebola outbreak in history surpassed 700 deaths in West Africa as the World Health Organization on Thursday announced dozens of new fatalities. 
 
 Nigerian health authorities confirmed a second case of Ebola in Africa's most populous nation and quarantined eight additional people. Dr. William Karesh discusses the outbreak on the News Hub with Sara Murray. Photo: Getty Images. 
 
 CNBC's Meg Tirrell reports on the latest Ebola threats. A case has been confirmed in Spain. 
 
 Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) – Bloomberg’s Mark Crumpton reports on a Spanish nurse being diagnosed with Ebola at the Madrid hospital where two patients have been treated for the viral illness. He speaks on “Bottom Line.” (Source: Bloomberg) 
 
 Madrid (AFP) - A Spanish nurse has contracted Ebola after treating two patients who died from the disease at a Madrid hospital, the government said Monday, in the first known case of transmission outside of Africa. 
 
 The 40-year-old began to feel ill on September 30 but did not go to hospital until Sunday, complaining of a fever. 
 
 Two tests have now confirmed that she has been infected with the deadly virus that has killed more than 3,400 people in west Africa. 
 
 Spanish health officials are scrambling to find out who she may have come into contact with, and are monitoring 30 people -- including her co-workers and husband -- closely for symptoms of the deadly disease. 
 
 The woman was part of a medical team at Madrid's La Paz-Carlos III hospital that treated two elderly Spanish missionaries who died of Ebola shortly after they were repatriated from Africa. 
 
 She had gone on holiday the day after the second patient died on September 25, Madrid's primary healthcare director, Antonio Alemany, said at a news conference, without specifying where she had travelled to. 
 
 View gallery A Spanish Defense Ministry photo shows aid workers and doctors transferring Catholic missionary Manu … 
 
 The nurse, who is married without children, is now being treated in isolation at a hospital in Alcorcon, a southern Madrid suburb. 
 
 She is in a stable condition although still running a fever, Alemany added. 
 
 - Repatriation deemed risky - 
 
 News of the nurse's infection has sparked renewed questions about the Spanish government's decision to repatriate infected missionaries from Africa, with critics saying that the nation's hospitals were not adequately equipped to deal with Ebola cases. 
 
 The nurse had treated Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, 75, who was infected with Ebola in Liberia and died on August 12, as well as Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, who was repatriated from Sierra Leone and died on September 25. 
 
 View gallery A health worker takes Benson, 2 months, from his mother to carry him to a re-opened Ebola holding ce … 
 
 Pajares was the first patient in the fast-spreading Ebola outbreak to be evacuated to Europe for treatment. 
 
 Both missionaries were treated in isolation at La Paz-Carlos III hospital, and the medical team that cared for them were closely monitored. 
 
 But a union that represents Spanish doctors, Amyts, had called the repatriation "risky". 
 
 "We are working to see if all the protocols which were established were strictly followed," Health Minister Ana Mato told the news conference. 
 
 "Spain follows all the recommendations of the World Health Organization," she added. 
 
 View gallery Ebola health care workers carry the body of a middle aged man that they suspected of dying from the … 
 
 The Ebola virus causes fever, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and sometimes internal and external bleeding. 
 
 It spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has the virus, and the only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate those who are infected. 
 
 There is no market-approved drug for treating Ebola yet, and no vaccine to prevent it. 
 
 Of several prototype treatments in the pipeline, one dubbed ZMapp has been fast-tracked for use, developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical in California in conjunction with the US Army. 
 
 Ebola has caused 3,439 deaths out of 7,478 cases across five west African nations -- Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal, according to the latest tally from the World Health Organisation. 
 
 Europe and the United States have also been touched by the disease, but until now all the cases stemmed from people who caught the virus in west Africa. 
 
 - 'Extraordinarily low' chance of US outbreak - 
 
 Seeking to allay fears about contagion in the United States, President Barack Obama said the chances of an outbreak in his country were "extraordinarily low". 
 
 He vowed however to press world leaders to step up the global fight against the deadly epidemic in west Africa. 
 
 US health officials said a Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola in Texas had received an experimental drug called brincidofovir, the first time the medicine has been used to fight the virus. 
 
 The man's condition worsened from serious to critical over the weekend. 
 
 Also on Monday, the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced that a Norwegian employee had contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone and would be repatriated shortly. 
 
 Another MSF worker, a French nurse, caught the virus while volunteering in neighbouring Liberia but has been cured, according to the French government. 
 
 French President Francois Hollande said before the Spanish case was revealed that France was ready to deal with any outbreak of Ebola on its soil. 
 
 "We would be capable of providing treatment if any cases occur in France," he said. ||||| Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who is fighting a severe Ebola infection in Dallas, is getting an experimental treatment, the hospital announced Monday. 
 
 The drug is an investigational medication, brincidofovir. Duncan began receiving it Saturday, shortly after his condition was down-graded to critical, according to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas 
 
 Duncan remains in critical but stable condition, the hospital said Monday. 
 
 Chimerix, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company today announced that brincidofovir has been provided for potential use in patients with Ebola Virus Disease. The company is developing new oral antivirals in areas of high unmet medical need, including Ebola. 
 
 The drug was being developed to treat smallpox and the adenovirus, which accounts for about 10 percent of acute respiratory infections in kids and are a frequent cause of diarrhea. 
 
 “We are hopeful that brincidofovir may offer a potential treatment for Ebola Virus Disease during this outbreak,” Dr. M. Michelle Berrey, the president and chief executive officer of Chimerix, said in a statement released Monday by the company. 
 
 Chimerix is working closely with the Food and Drug Administration to finalize a clinical trial protocol early this week to assess the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of brincidofovir in patients who are confirmed to have an Ebola infection, said the statement. 
 
 The company is also working with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop brincidofovir as a medical countermeasure against smallpox. 
 
 Brincidofovir has received fast-track designation from the FDA for the adenovirus, smallpox and the cytomegalovirus, a common virus in the herpes virus family that can infect anyone.
– A nurse in Spain has come down with Ebola, making her the first victim of the current outbreak to not contract the disease in Africa, the BBC reports. Health officials say she began feeling sick last week after treating Manuel Viejo, a Spanish priest who got Ebola in Sierra Leone (Viejo, 69, died on Sept. 25, and was the second Spanish missionary to die of the disease, AFP reports). The nurse was hospitalized today with high fever and is in stable condition. In other Ebola news: Thomas Duncan, the Liberian national being treated for Ebola in Dallas, is in critical but stable condition, the Dallas Morning News reports. He's receiving the experimental Ebola drug brincidofovir; CDC Director Thomas Frieden says the drug Zmapp, which given to US doctors and aid workers, is "all gone," the Independent reports. Ashoka Mukpo, an American photojournalist with Ebola, has flown to Omaha, Nebraska, for treatment, the Guardian reports. He fell ill while reporting on the Liberia outbreak. Frieden says he's confident that Ebola won't spread in the US, but why? Partly it's because Ebola has a low infection rate, NPR reports. Each case of Ebola usually infects only 1.5 to 2.0 others when no one is vaccinated. By contrast, HIV infects 2 to 4, and measles, one of the worst, infects about 18.