DYDPPA, AFP | Spanish nurse Teresa Romero received treatment for Ebola at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid

A Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola while caring for two infected priests at a hospital in Madrid was officially cleared of the disease on Tuesday after a second and conclusive test for the virus came out negative.

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"The criteria set by the World Health Organization for curing the Ebola virus have been fulfilled... She is now cured," Doctor Jose Ramon Arribas, head of the Carlos III hospital's infectious diseases unit in Madrid, told a news conference.

Teresa Romero, 44, became the first person to contract Ebola outside of West Africa earlier this month when she tested positive for the virus on October 6.

She was treated in an isolation unit at Carlos III hospital, and doctors said she began to show signs of recovery last week.

Romero appeared to have overcome the disease after an initial negative test on Sunday, but had to wait 72 hours for a second test before being given the all-clear.

She received plasma from a recovered Ebola patient, but health authorities have disclosed no more treatment details.

Romero’s spokeswoman said she is expected to remain at the hospital for another two weeks.

She is the only known sufferer of Ebola in Spain. There are a further fifteen people in hospital, including Romero’s husband, under observation for signs of the disease.

Ebola has killed at least 4,546 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in the recent outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP, REUTERS)

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