Four people have been quarantined over suspicion of the potential spread of Ebola in the region, Spanish health authorities announced in Madrid on Tuesday.

These include Teresa Romero, the Spanish nurse who became the first person to test positive for Ebola outside West Africa, another health worker involved in caring for the priest Manuel Garcia Viejo, and two others.

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Romero assisted in caring for the two repatriated missionary priests from Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone and Liberia who were admitted to Madrid's Carlos III hospital in August and in September. Both priests succumbed to the viral infection a few days later.

Spanish officials have yet to determine how exactly the nurse got infected. Meanwhile, the EU health security committee and local health workers have been pressing Spanish health authorities to explain presumed lapses.

Romero, who worked as a sanitary technician for Fr. Viejo, only came in contact with the sick priest twice and was following protocols on both occasions said Spain's public health director, Mercedes Vinuesa Sebastian.

The 40-year-old nurse's condition has already stabilized. She is now being treated with antibodies from previous infected patients, NBC News reported.

Twenty other people she came in contact with, including her husband who shows no sign of infection, are now being monitored, Rafael Perez-Santamaria, head of Carlos III hospital said.

Among those quarantined is Romero's colleague, a nurse, who had complained of diarrhea, a symptom of Ebola infection. She has tested negative on Ebola and has not shown signs of fever. The other is an unnamed Spaniard traveler from Nigeria who has been put under quarantine for precautionary measures.

Ebola has so far infected 7,200 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria, killing more than 3,000 people in the wake of a sweeping outbreak that began in March.

With global fears for the Ebola outbreak crossing the West African borders, the World Health Organization has announced on Tuesday that a European outbreak is unlikely, although the spread of infection is "unavoidable."

TagsEbola in Spain, Spain, Ebola in Europe