The 40-year-old, who reportedly complained about the gloves supplied by the NHS, is thought to have been infected with monkeypox while changing bedding at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
It was also thought her husband may have caught the potentially fatal virus after his face broke out in spots, The Sun reports.
The newspaper quotes the hospital worker as saying: “The gloves were too short to cover my arms and left my skin exposed while changing the bed. I think that’s how I got infected.”
She also claims staff were told they were not at risk, something she dismissed as “nonsense”, and told a friend the gloves were "pathetically small", according to The Sun.
Reports suggest the health worker developed monkeypox symptoms while working at the hospital which diagnosed one of the two earlier victims, both who caught the virus in Nigeria.
The symptoms of monkeypox, an infectious virus, include developing a fever, swollen glands and extensive blistering on the skin, as well as muscle aches, headaches and exhaustion.
Most people recover within a few weeks, but some can have much more severe reactions. The infection can be spread when someone is in close contact with an infected person, but there is a very low risk of transmission to the general population, Public Health England (PHE) said.
Dr Nick Phin, deputy director of the National Infection Service at PHE, said the healthcare worker cared for the infected patient before a diagnosis of monkeypox was made.
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He added: “We have been actively monitoring contacts for 21 days after exposure to detect anyone presenting with an illness so that they can be assessed quickly. It is therefore not wholly unexpected that a case has been identified. This person has been isolated and we are taking a highly precautionary approach to ensure that all contacts are traced.”
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has also been approached for comment.
