The Ebola epidemic spread to a fifth country in West Africa region on Friday (Aug 29) with the first confirmed case of the deadly virus in Senegal.

Senegal's health ministry has said the patient is a young Guinean man who was immediately quarantined at a Dakar hospital, where he is in a "satisfactory condition" international media reported.

The man is believed to have been infected in Guinea's capital Conakry, and may have travelled to Senegal before Dakar closed its land border with Guinea on August 21.

Authorities are in a bid to to piece together where he went and who he encountered, in a bid to halt the spread of the deadly virus.

This reported case comes merely a day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned the number of infections is increasing rapidly. The current Ebola epidemic had already claimed more than 1500 lives.