The UN World Health Organization’s European director says Ebola in Europe is “unavoidable” because of large numbers of people already traveling between the continent and the countries that are worst affected by the West African Ebola Epidemic.  Four people are under quarantine in Madrid after the first person-to-person transfer of the killer virus outside Africa.

Spanish health officials say the female nursing assistant who became infected with the Ebola virus had earlier changed the diapers of a Roman Catholic priest who was airlifted from Sierra Leone to Spain after he became symptomatic.  She also disposed of his bedding after he died.  Both times, she wore a hazmat suit, and there is not record indicating any accidental exposure to the virus.  The nurse’s union is demanding answers from health officials, wondering what will be done to protect them.

Four people at the hospital are under quarantine – the nursing assistant, her husband, and two others – and officials are tracking down the nursing assistant’s contact during her days off spent in Madrid.  They’re even raising eyebrows by obtaining a court order to put down the woman’s dog, claiming the pooch could carry the Ebola virus.

That came up in the news conference with US Centers for Disease Control chief Dr. Tom Frieden who said, “We have not identified this as means of transmission.”  He did not directly address Madrid’s health officials for getting the court order.

So the dog connection is questionable, but a World Health Organization official says future infections in Europe are inevitable, but eminently manageable.

“The most important thing in our view is that Europe is still at low risk, and that the western part of the European region particularly is the best prepared in the world to respond to viral hemorrhagic fevers including Ebola,” said the WHO’s Zsuzsanna Jakab.