Madrid, Oct 15 (IANS/EFE): Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Wednesday said the Ebola crisis sparked by the contagion of a nursing assistant at a Madrid hospital was being contained.

Rajoy made the remark at a parliamentary session at which he was grilled over the issue by Socialist opposition leader Pedro Sanchez.

Nursing assistant Teresa Romero, 44, last week became the first person to have contracted the deadly Ebola virus outside West Africa, after taking care of a repatriated Spanish missionary who died Sep 25 at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital.

Romero was reported to have improved Wednesday as the virus in her body weakened two weeks after she contracted it, and although she was still in serious condition, doctors said they hoped she would overcome the disease.

Another 15 people, who are under observation at the Carlos III Hospital, including Romero's husband, have not shown any symptoms.

Rajoy said Wednesday the crisis was being contained and added that his European colleagues were "very pleased" with the way his government had handled the case.

Ebola has killed nearly 4,500 people, mostly in Guinea Conakry, Liberia and Sierra Leone since last March.