The first case of the Ebola virus detected in Senegal, a 21-year-old student who arrived from neighbouring Guinea last month, has recovered from the deadly disease, a senior official said yesterday.

“We did a first blood test on Friday and a second 48 hours later and both of them came back negative,” Papa Amadou Diack, Senegal’s director of health, told Reuters.

“This is very good news for the patient and for the country.”

The world’s worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever has killed at least 2,296 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Senegalese authorities are still monitoring 67 people who came into contact with the student and trying to trace his route on the more than 1,000km land journey across the border from southwest Guinea.

Some 33 people have been placed under quarantine in the house in the teeming neighbourhood of Parcelles Assainies where he stayed with an uncle after arriving in Dakar in late August.

This is very good news for the patient and the country

The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday there were two suspected cases of Ebola in Senegal. However, the UN agency said yesterday that the individuals who had shown signs of illness on September 3 and 4 had tested negative for the virus.

The WHO said the epidemic is spreading exponentially in the worst affected country, Liberia, and it expects thousands of new cases there in the next three weeks.

Meanwhile, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $50 million (€38.7 million) yesterday to support emergency efforts to contain West Africa’s Ebola epidemic.

The US-based philanthropic foundation said it would release funds immediately to UN agencies and international organisations to help them buy supplies and scale up the emergency response in affected countries.

It will also work with public and private sector partners to speed up the development of drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics that could be effective in treating Ebola patients and preventing further spread of the haemorrhagic, fever-causing virus.

“We are working urgently with our partners to identify the most effective ways to help them save lives now and stop transmission of this deadly disease,” Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the foundation’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show the Ebola outbreak, which began in March, has infected almost 4,300 people so far, killing more than half of them.

The deadly viral infection is raging in three countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – and has also spread into neighbouring Nigeria and Senegal.

The WHO said on Tuesday the Ebola death toll jumped by almost 200 in a single day to at least 2,296 and is already likely to be higher than that.

It has previously warned that the epidemic is growing “exponentially” and there could be up to 20,000 cases in West Africa before it is brought to a halt.

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