A Spanish nurse has tested positive for Ebola almost a month after she treated a patient who eventually died of the disease. 

 

"Two tests were done and the two were positive," a spokesman for the health department of Madrid told the AFP news agency on Monday. The nurse was now in isolation in a hospital on the outskirts of Madrid. 

 

Ana Mato, Spain's health minister, said the nurse was part of a medical team that treated Manuel Garcia Viejo, a 69-year-old Spanish priest who died last month in Spain after contracting the virus while working in Sierra Leone. 

 

Al Jazeera has learned that the nurse had been "living freely" since the priest's death, and had been "in normal contact" with her family. The nurse's case is believed to be the first Ebola infection outside of West Africa. 

 

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed at least 3,439 people since it began in March, out of nearly 7,500 confirmed, probable and suspected cases. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are the worst-hit countries. 

 

Meanwhile, the US administration said it is not considering a ban on travellers from countries most affected by the virus.