Ebola crisis: Four new patients with suspected symptoms taken to hospital in Spain

Three cases reported in Madrid while the fourth is in the Canary Islands

Two ambulances arrive at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital , carrying a possible new Ebola patient (REUTERS/Andrea Comas)

Four new patients with suspected Ebola symptoms are being tested for the virus in Spain, including a passenger on an Air France jet isolated at Madrid's airport yesterday.

Three of the suspected cases have been reported in the capital, while the fourth is in the Canary Islands, where a further two people have also been admitted to hospital for precautionary monitoring, according to reports.

The Air France passenger, who had travelled from Nigeria, was taken by ambulance to Madrid's Carlos III hospital with a fever.

The flight carrying 163 people was isolated after arriving from Paris in a remote part of Madrid's airport for disinfection.

Elsewhere in Madrid, another person with a fever, who had come into contact with Spanish nursing assistant Teresa Romero before she was hospitalised, has also been sent to the same hospital in the city.

Ms Romero's condition, meanwhile, appeared to be improving, a Health Ministry official said.

A missionary has also been transported to the hospital after coming down with a fever following his return from Liberia.

The priest, who arrived in Spain on October 11, was from the same religious order as two Spanish priests who died in Madrid in recent weeks after contracting the disease in West Africa.

A Red Cross health worker who recently worked with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone was also hospitalised yesterday with a fever after returning home to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, officials said.

Two roommates meanwhile, who have been showing no symptoms, were placed in hospital isolation as a precaution.

In Geneva, a World Health Organization official said the Ebola death toll will rise to more than 4,500 this week from among 9,000 people infected.

Additional reporting by Associated Press and Reuters