MADRID, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – The condition of Ebola-infected nurse Teresa Romero Ramos, who is currently undergoing treatment in Spain, has stabilized, with the next two days expected to show if the nurse is likely to recover, medics reported Tuesday.
The nurse's condition was described as "stable but grave," with some improvements made recently, hospital's director Antonio Andreu said.
"Statistically, after a certain amount of days, when a particular barrier has been passed, those who have survived have higher chances [of recovering]," Fernando de la Calle, the head of the Tropical Medicine Unit at Carlos III, who is overseeing Ramos' treatment said.
After some two weeks a patient's condition either worsens or improves. When there is an improvement, the patient has a much higher likelihood of recovery, according to de la Calle.
On October 10, media reports said the nurse was to receive the experimental drug ZMapp that was responsible for the recovery of two US aid workers earlier in August. Ramos has also been treated with a hyperimmune serum, developed from the blood of a person who has recovered from Ebola, and an antiviral.
On October 6, Ramos tested positive for Ebola after treating Spanish priest Manuel Garcia Viejo, who became infected while assisting patients in Sierra Leone. The priest died on September 25 and was the first European to succumb to the current Ebola outbreak.
The current Ebola outbreak began in Guinea in February and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal. The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of the infected. There is no officially approved medicine for the disease, but several countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan are working on developing Ebola vaccines.
