Spain sends plane to evacuate missionary with Ebola
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MADRID - Spain's government said Wednesday it will send an air force plane to Liberia within hours to fly an elderly Spanish missionary infected with Ebola back home for treatment.
Miguel Pajares, a 75-year-old Roman Catholic priest, has tested positive for Ebola at a hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia where he worked, according to the Spanish aid organisation he works for.
Spain has equipped a military Airbus A310 for a medical evacuation and is to send the aircraft shortly to the West African nation to retrieve the missionary, a Defence Ministry spokesman said.
"It could leave in the next hour," the spokesman told AFP.
"As soon as it is ready it will leave."
The Airbus A310, based at Madrid's Torrejon military air base, was equipped overnight and a military medical team has been trained for the operation, the spokesman said.
Spain's health ministry said no decision had been taken on where the priest would be treated.
Madrid's La Paz hospital, reportedly a possible destination, said it had not received confirmation that it would be treating him.
The 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.
AFP
