Second Spanish priest dies of Ebola after being evacuated to Madrid

A second Spanish priest has died of the Ebola virus, the Spanish Ministry of Health said Thursday.

Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, died Thursday afternoon at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health told the Los Angeles Times.

The priest was medical director of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Lunsar, Sierra Leone, and is believed to have contracted Ebola while working there.

He was evacuated by plane to Madrid on Monday, and was said at that time to be “stable and conscious,” according to health officials.

On Wednesday, officials at the Order of San Juan de Dios said the priest was stable but in grave condition.

Another Spanish priest, 75-year-old Miguel Pajares, was the first European to die of the disease, despite receiving a dose of the experimental drug ZMapp.

Pajares, who worked in a hospital in Liberia, was also transported to the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid, where he died Aug. 12.

The Ebola virus is believed to have infected more than 6,200 people in West Africa and killed more than 2,900 of them so far. Healthcare workers trying to fight the disease in Ebola wards are especially vulnerable. At least 208 doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers are believed to have died from the virus, according to the latest numbers from the World Health Organization.

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