A Liberian doctor has died despite taking an experimental anti-Ebola drug, Liberia’s information minister says.
Abraham Borbor was one of three doctors in Liberia who had been given ZMapp and were showing signs of recovery.
ZMapp has been credited with helping several patients recover, including two US doctors.
More than 1,400 people have died from Ebola this year in four West African countries – Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Dr Borbor “was showing signs of improvement but yesterday (Sunday) he took a turn for the worse,” Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told the Associated Press news agency.
Mr Brown provided no further details, but it is believed Dr Borbor died in the capital Monrovia.
UK isolation case
Meanwhile, the family of a British volunteer nurse being treated at a hospital in London after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone said said he was receiving “excellent care”.
William Pooley, 29, returned to the UK on Sunday and is being kept in a special isolation unit.
Supplies of Zmapp are thought to have been used up and he is not currently being treated with the drug.
However, officials have not ruled the use of Zmapp or similar treatments.
Ebola is spread between humans through direct contact with infected body fluids and several doctors and health workers have died.
It is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, with up to 90% of cases resulting in death, although in the current outbreak the rate is about 55%.
The speed and extent of the outbreak was “unprecedented”, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week.
An estimated 2,615 people in West Africa have been infected with Ebola since March.
On Saturday, Sierra Leone’s parliament passed a new law making it a criminal offence to hide Ebola patients.
If approved by the president, those caught face up to two years in prison.
