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The nurse who is the first person to catch Ebola outside West Africa found out she had the disease from a newspaper website.

Teresa Romero Ramos was waiting to be quarantined in Madrid when she read on her mobile phone she had tested positive.

She said: “Nobody told me anything. I found out on my mobile. I suspected something because at the hospital they stopped coming in.

“Nobody told me to my face.”

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Earlier Ms Ramos, 44, said she accidentally touched her face with gloves after treating an infected Spanish missionary who later died.

The nurse was part of a 30-strong team at the Carlos III hospital treating the 69-year-old who had been repatriated after catching Ebola in Sierra Leone.

She said she might have become infected when removing protective clothing after cleaning the priest’s room. She said: “I think the error was the removal of the suit. I can see the moment it may have happened.”

A hospital official spoke to Ms Ramos and said it confirmed the infection “may not have been an error, but rather an accident”.

Her husband Javier Limon, also in quarantine with three other people in Madrid, has been fighting in vain to stop their pet dog being put down because he may be infected.

Around 300,000 people signed an online petition to spare the dog.