The condition of a Spanish nurse infected with the deadly Ebola virus has improved and she is talking, a medical source said on Saturday (local time).
The nurse, Teresa Romero, “is quite a bit better than yesterday”.
“Her condition improved in the night,” the source told AFP.
“She is conscious and talks from time to time when she is in a good mood.”
Her condition “is serious but is improving”, the source said.
Doctors in Madrid started treating Ms Romero with the experimental Ebola treatment ZMapp late on Friday, the source added.
There is still no vaccine or widely available treatment for Ebola, but ZMapp is one of several drugs that have been fast-tracked for development.
Ms Romero is the first person diagnosed with the deadly haemorrhagic fever outside of Africa.
She is thought to have contracted the disease in late September in a Madrid hospital while caring for a Spanish missionary who was repatriated after he became infected with Ebola in Africa.
Seven more people were admitted to the specially adapted Carlos III hospital in Madrid on Friday.
A hospital spokeswoman said 14 people were now under observation or being treated, including Ms Romero’s husband.
Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy gave a statement to the media outside the hospital on Friday, saying it was extremely unlikely the disease would spread in the country.
With recriminations growing over how Ms Romero became infected at the Madrid hospital, health workers protested outside the building, throwing gloves at Mr Rajoy’s convey after his visit.
Meanwhile, a Guinean man quarantined in Brazil has been cleared of having contracted the virus, health officials said.
“The health ministry says that diagnostic testing on the patient suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus is negative,” a government statement said.
“He’s in good condition, and does not have a fever.”
The statement added, however, that the 47-year-old remains in isolation.
The man, who arrived in Brazil from Africa last month, checked into a clinic in the town of Cascavel on Wednesday complaining of fever.
On Friday he was taken in an air force plane from the southern state of Parana to the National Infectious Disease Institute (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro.
More than 4,000 people have died in the Ebola epidemic in West Africa since the start of the year, the World Health Organisation says.
AFP/Reuters