El Salvador quarantines 2 nuns as Ebola precaution

SAN SALVADOR – As a precaution against Ebola, El Salvador has quarantined two nuns who arrived in the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Health Minister Violeta Menjivar said Thursday.

She said the nuns, who arrived on Monday at the international airport serving San Salvador, “are healthy but we’ve put them in quarantine, just as we have two Salvadoran soldiers.”

The soldiers were put in isolation on their return in August from Liberia, one of the west African countries most affected by an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 3,300 people.

In the DRC, a separate outbreak of the disease has killed 42 people since August.

Menjivar said El Salvador was putting together a 125-member contingent of doctors and other health care professionals to help with international efforts in west Africa to contain the epidemic.