Liberian doctor succumbs to Ebola as deaths reported in DR Congo

A Liberian doctor who was among three Africans to receive an experimental Ebola drug has died, the country's information minister said Monday.

Dr. Abraham Borbor, the deputy chief medical doctor at the country's largest hospital, had been among three Liberians, and the first Africans, who received the drug, ZMapp. Two Americans received the untested drug and survived. A Spaniard infected with Ebola received the treatment but died. There was no update given on the two other Liberians who took doses of the drug.

Borbor "was showing signs of improvement but yesterday he took a turn for the worse," Information Minister Lewis Brown told The Associated Press. It wasn't clear if he died late Sunday or on Monday.

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.

Only six people in the world are known to have received ZMapp. The small supply is now said to be exhausted, and it is expected to be months before more can be produced by its U.S. maker.

Ebola-related deaths have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Djera, a remote area of the northern Equateur province, the country's health minister said Sunday, though local officials believe the cases are unrelated to the outbreak in West Africa.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday it has sent protective equipment for medical staff there.

"The ministry of health has declared an outbreak and we are treating it as such," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said in Geneva in response to a query.

The current Ebola epidemic has focused on Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone with several cases also in Nigeria.

Congolese authorities who went to the remote area found 24 cases of hemorrhagic fever of "unknown origin,” including 13 people that had died, Jasarevic said.

Of these, two have tested positive for Ebola, but other samples taken from suspect cases are being analyzed, he said.

This is the seventh outbreak of Ebola in Congo. The disease was first discovered there in 1976.

"The experience acquired during the six previous epidemics of Ebola will contribute to the containing of this illness," said Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi.

Boende is the region in Equateur province where the World Health Organization said an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis has killed 70 people in recent weeks.

The WHO said last week those deaths were not Ebola-related, but WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said by email Sunday that the information was the result of "miscommunication from the field."

Hartl said on Twitter that samples tested at a national laboratory were positive for Ebola and that the results of confirmation tests from a laboratory in Gabon would likely come back Monday.

He said it was possible the outbreak could be unrelated to the outbreak in West Africa, where a total of 2,615 infections and 1,427 deaths have been recorded in four countries — Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Djera, a collection of villages, is more than 745 miles from Congo's capital, Kinshasa. It is more than 370 miles from the provincial capital, Mbandaka.

Kabange said Djera would be placed under quarantine.

Wire services