MADRID: Countries across the world scrambled Saturday to stem a deadly Ebola outbreak that is getting worse “every day,” as the condition of a Spanish nurse infected with the disease improved.

Travelers were screened and safety drills were carried out as a UN official just back from west Africa warned the disease, which has killed more than 4,000 people there, was outpacing efforts to fight it.

“The virus is far ahead of us and every day the situation gets worse,” the head of the United Nations’ emergency Ebola mission Anthony Banbury, told UN leaders after a tour of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the nations worst hit by the epidemic.

“Collectively we must stop the spread to other countries and ensure that countries are prepared to rapidly detect, control, and eliminate the virus if it is introduced.”

A suspect case was ruled out in Brazil, where a Guinean man tested negative for Ebola, the Health Ministry said, but fears of contagion persisted in Europe.

Attention there focused on Madrid-based nurse Teresa Romero, 44, the first person diagnosed as having caught the disease outside Africa.

Spanish government officials were locked in a meeting on Saturday to coordinate their response to the crisis.

Romero’s condition “improved in the night. She is conscious and talks from time to time when she is in a good mood,” a hospital source told AFP.

Her condition “is serious but is improving,” the source said.

Sixteen other people, mostly hospital staff, are under observation at the Carlos III hospital where Romero is being treated. The hospital said one of them was expecting final test results and could be discharged Saturday.

Doctors started treating 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, made in California, is one of several drugs that have been fast-tracked for development.

Romero is thought to have contracted the disease in late September in a Madrid hospital while caring for a Spanish missionary infected with Ebola in Africa who later died.