Staff at a Spanish hospital where a nurse is being treated for Ebola have thrown surgical gloves at the car of the country's Prime Minister.

Mariano Rajoy was at the hospital to visit those looking after Teresa Romero - the first person known to have contracted the disease outside of west Africa.

During his visit, Mr Rajoy also announced his government was bringing in new measures to tackle the virus, including the establishment of a special committee to manage the situation: “A special committee is being set up, which will be chaired by the deputy prime minister of Spain. It will comprise of all the relevant ministries, the Madrid government.

“And we’ve asked for some representatives from the hospital who without doubt are the experts in this field and know the issue,” Rajoy said.

Teresa Romero, 44, is described as being in a serious but stable condition. The nurse caught the deadly disease while treating a priest. He had flown to Madrid after becoming infected in West Africa and later died.

Questions have been raised about safety measures at Carlos III hospital where Ms Romero is in a stable but serious condition.
There have been complaints from medical staff that they did not receive the appropriate training.

Nurses' union representative Paloma Panillas said nursing staff "don't trust this situation".

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said it was extremely unlikely the disease - which has already killed thousands of people in West Africa - would spread in Spain.

Speaking outside the hospital, Rajoy said: "Our first priority is Teresa Romero - she is the only person that we know has the illness."

The Spanish government is under pressure over the fact that Ms. Romero informed a medical centre on September 30 that she felt feverish but it then took close to a week before she was tested for Ebola.

The New York Times reports that on Wednesday Rajoy told the Spanish Parliament his government would pledge “total transparency” about how authorities handled the situation.

“What we have to do is let the professionals work,” Rajoy said. “What we have to do is be vigilant but stay calm.”

Ms. Romero has told Spanish health officials that she believes she may have become infected when she touched her face with a surgical glove used in the care of the sick priest. Romero was wearing the gloves after she had removed her protective suit during her visit to the room of the priest.

Romero also told Spanish media this is when she suspects she may have come into contact with the disease – which is not airborne. “I think the error was the removal of the suit,” Ms. Romero told El Pais, from her isolation unit at the Madrid hospital.

“I can see the moment it may have happened, but I’m not sure about it,” Romero said. Seven more people have been admitted to the hospital in relation to Mrs Romero's case - taking the total number under observation or being treated to 14.

The new admissions included two hairdressers who had given her a beauty treatment before she was diagnosed and hospital staff who had treated her after she was admitted on Monday.

All went voluntarily to be monitored for signs of the disease, although none of the 14, including her husband, has so far tested positive for the disease except Ms Romero.

Earlier, Mr Rajoy has announced that a special committee would be set up to deal with the virus.

Mrs Romero is the first person known outside of West Africa to have caught the disease in the current outbreak.