AKIPRESS.COM - Investigations are under way at a hospital in Madrid after a Spanish nurse became the first person known to have contracted the deadly Ebola virus outside west Africa.

The nurse had treated two Spanish missionaries who died of the disease after being flown home from the region.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has announced plans to screen passengers flying to the United States.

Some 3,400 people have died in the outbreak - mostly in West Africa, BBC reports.

Barack Obama criticised foreign governments for not acting "as aggressively as they need to" against the outbreak.

"Countries that think that they can sit on the sidelines and just let the United States do it, that will result in a less effective response, a less speedy response, and that means that people die.

"And it also means that the potential spread of the disease beyond these areas in West Africa becomes more imminent," Mr Obama said.