A Liberian doctor who was among three
Africans to receive an experimental Ebola drug has died, it was announced
today.
Dr Abraham Borbor, the deputy chief
medical doctor at the country's largest hospital in Monrovia, had been among
three Liberians - and the first Africans - who received the drug, ZMapp.
He worked at the John F. Kennedy
Medical Center in the country's capital. Initial reports suggested all three
recipients of the drug had responded well after receiving the drug on August
13.
But Dr Borbor yesterday took a turn
for the worse, the country's Information Minister Lewis Brown told The
Associated Press.
Two Americans, Dr Kent Brantly and
aid worker Nancy Writebol, received the untested drug and survived.
But a Spanish missionary infected
with Ebola died after receiving the treatment - and there has been no update on
the two other Liberians who took doses of it.
Ebola has killed more than 1,400
people across West Africa. There is no proven vaccine or cure for the disease
that can cause a grisly death with bleeding from the eyes, mouth and ears.
The virus can only be transmitted
through direct contact with the bodily fluids of the sick or from touching
victims' bodies, leaving doctors and other health care workers most vulnerable
to contracting it.
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