Italian Ebola victim's condition improves

ROME (Reuters) - The condition of an Italian doctor repatriated from West Africa after being diagnosed with Ebola is improving and no longer has fever, the Rome hospital which is treating him said on Thursday. The 50 year-old Sicilian, the only confirmed Italian victim of the disease, contracted the haemorrhagic virus while working for humanitarian group Emergency in Sierra Leone, where cases are continuing to rise in the worst Ebola outbreak on record. The Lazzaro Spallanzani infectious diseases unit said on Thursday the patient's condition had got better after improving the previous day. He is not feverish, is breathing on his own and is "interacting positively" with hospital staff. He had been moved to intensive care on Dec. 5 and received respiratory assistance after his condition worsened. The Italian victim, who has not been officially named, was flown to Rome in late November and has been treated with a combination of an experimental drug never used before in Italy, and plasma taken from survivors of the disease. (Reporting by Isla Binnie Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)