Ebola:Spain Sends Jet To Evacuate Ebola-Stricken Priest In Liberia

Spain on Wednesday sent a specially equipped Airbus medical jet to Liberia to evacuate a Spanish priest infected with the Ebola virus, government health officials said.

The stricken missionary, Father Miguel Pajares, 75 years old, is expected to be airlifted back to Madrid in "the coming hours," Mercedes Vinuesa, Spain's director general of public health, said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

"It's a very complicated job," Ms. Vinuesa said. "We are focused on doing it with the best guarantees for the patient, for society and for health personnel. We are in the process of repatriation, which in a country like Liberia takes time."

The plane, an Airbus A310, departed from a Spanish Air Force base just outside Madrid around 1 p.m. local time Wednesday, state television said. Father Pajares is one of three religious workers who are being quarantined at the San Jose de Monrovia Hospital in Liberia after having tested positive for Ebola.
Ms. Vinuesa said Father Pajares is running a fever. A nun who also works in Liberia, Sister Juliana Bonoha, told Spanish state television that the missionaries "eat very little and need a doctor." She added that many people in Liberia are trying to help Father Pajares.

In Spain, doctors and health officials were scrambling to make preparations to receive Father Pajares. Some medical workers' unions have expressed concern about whether Spanish hospitals are adequately prepared to handle an Ebola patient.

Ebola, whose symptoms can begin with fever and nausea and progress to internal bleeding, has been known to kill up to 90% of those it infects. It spreads through contact with bodily fluids. There is no vaccine or cure.