Ebola outbreak: Spread of deadly disease across Europe is 'unavoidable', warns WHO chief

The spread of Ebola across Europe is "quite unavoidable", the World Health Organisation has warned as four people were in hospital after a Spanish nurse became the first person known to have contracted the virus outside Africa.

WHO European director Zsuzsanna Jakab has said while more cases will spread in Europe, the continent should be well prepared to control the disease.

Health officials in Spain today said four people - the nurse, her husband and two others - were being monitored in hospital in a bid to stem the spread of the virus.

"Such imported cases and similar events as have happened in Spain will happen also in the future, most likely," Ms Jakab told Reuters.

"It is quite unavoidable ... that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel both from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around," she said.

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