Teresa Romero, the Spanish nursing auxiliary who earlier this month became the first person to contract Ebola in Europe, is making “giant steps” towards recovery, according to hospital sources in Madrid.
Yesterday she got out of bed for the first time since she was admitted. Staff said she was animated. Her appetite had improved to the point that she was demanding “jamón and chorizo”.
Although still wearing an oxygen mask, Romero’s left lung was said to be functioning “at 100%” and her viral load is continuing to fall. She is having a third test for Ebola today and doctors predict that on Monday morning they will announce that she has tested negative for the disease.
Madrid health authorities have claimed that Romero contracted the disease after touching the face of the Spanish missionary she was treating. However, yesterday she said that she had no memory of this. “If something like that had happened I would have told you,” she is reported to have told her husband.
Romero is being treated with a combination of serum made up of antibodies extracted from Ebola survivors and anti-viral drugs. “They are complementary treatments,” Juan García de Lomas, head of microbiology at the Hospital Clinic in Valencia explained.
However, experts warn that the antiviral is experimental and has only been tested on mice. The possible side-effects on humans are not known.
Until now Romero has been unaware that she has become a household name, with her picture on front pages and websites around the world and camera crews camped outside the hospital. Her family says she has been “in a cloud” and was initially so heavily medicated she found it difficult to hold a conversation. She still doesn’t know that the family dog, Excalibur, was put down by the health authorities.
