Alarm bells are ringing across Europe and America after Ebola Virus Disease, usually associated with West Africa, claimed lives in Britain and the United States of America in a space of 24 hours. The latest victim is the first Briton to die from the virus. The man – who has not yet been named – died in Macedonia, in Southeast Europe, after reportedly travelling from Britain with the killer disease, it has been reported.

His death, which was announced by a senior Macedonian Government official, is now being investigated by the Foreign Office.

The senior Macedonian Government official added that a second Briton is starting to show signs of the killer infection.

Britain recorded its first Ebola casualty a day after Thomas Eric Duncan became the first American to die from Ebola at a hospital in Dallas.

Doctors are currently monitoring around 50 people who came into close contact with him.

New figures show that the world’s largest outbreak of the disease, which has hit Sierra Leone and neighbouring Liberia, is escalating. The death toll has risen to 3,879 out of 8,033 cases.

In Britain, hospitals have been put on high alert as US scientists warn of a 50 per cent chance that the virus could reach the UK by October 24.

Until today, the only other Briton to contract the fatal currently plaguing swathes of West Africa, Spain and the United States, was nurse Will Pooley.

Mr Pooley, 29, from Eyke in Suffolk was treated successfully at the Royal Free Hospital, in London, with the experimental drug Zmapp.

Meanwhile in Europe, news that the condition of the Spanish nurse suffering from Ebola has deteriorated.

Teresa Romero remains in critical condition after becoming the first person to become infected with the deadly virus outside Africa.

The 44-year-old nurse contracted the disease while treating an infected priest, who later died from the disease.

The nurse has since admitted touching her face with her gloves as she took off her protective suit after leaving a room containing the infected priest.

There are also concerns that Ebola has spread to Australia after it was revealed that a nurse in the country is being tested for the virus.

Sue Ellen Kovack, a Red Cross worker, developed a fever after returning from Sierra Leone where she was working at an Ebola hospital in the West African country.

The 57-year-old is currently under quarantine at a hospital in Cairns where she is awaiting the results of her blood test.

The World Bank has since warned that the deadly virus could cost West Africa £20billion if the outbreak is not stopped.

•Rewritten from a Daily Express (London) report. Photo shows American Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan.

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