A Liberian doctor has died despite taking an experimental anti-Ebola drug, Liberia’s information minister says.<\/p>\n
Abraham Borbor was one of three doctors in Liberia who had been given ZMapp and were showing signs of recovery.<\/p>\n
ZMapp has been credited with helping several patients recover, including two US doctors.<\/p>\n
More than 1,400 people have died from Ebola this year in four West African countries – Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n
Dr Borbor “was showing signs of improvement but yesterday (Sunday) he took a turn for the worse,” Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown said.<\/p>\n
“What this means for the drugs, I don’t know,” the minister added, without giving further details.<\/p>\n
It is believed Dr Borbor died in the capital Monrovia. He was the deputy chief medical doctor at the country’s largest hospital.<\/p>\n
Liberia has recently imposed a quarantine in parts of Monrovia to try to stop the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n
Last Thursday, police fired live rounds and tear gas during protests among residents of the city’s West Point slum.<\/p>\n
Liberia has seen the most deaths – more than 570 – in what is now the worst Ebola outbreak in history.<\/p>\n
In a separate development on Monday, a UK volunteer nurse is being treated at a London hospital after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone – the first confirmed case of a Briton contracting the virus in the current outbreak.<\/p>\n
William Pooley, 29, returned to the UK on Sunday and is being kept in a special isolation unit.<\/p>\n
Supplies of Zmapp are thought to have been used up and he is not currently being treated with the drug.<\/p>\n
However, officials have not ruled the use of Zmapp or similar treatments.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Japan said it was ready to allow shipments of an experimental anti-viral drug to help combat the Ebola outbreak.<\/p>\n
It is not clear whether T-705 (or Avigan) will actually work against Ebola, and no monkey or human trials of the drug have been done, the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo reports.<\/p>\n
T-705 was developed by Japan’s Toyama Chemicals company for use against new strains of influenza. It was approved by the Japanese government earlier this year.<\/p>\n
A company spokesman says the firm believes the similarity between flu viruses and Ebola means Avigan could be effective.<\/p>\n
Japan says it is ready to ship Avigan even without approval by the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n
Ebola is spread between humans through direct contact with infected body fluids and several doctors and health workers have died.<\/p>\n
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 per cent.<\/p>\n
The speed and extent of the outbreak was “unprecedented”, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week.<\/p>\n
An estimated 2,615 people in West Africa have been infected with Ebola since March.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Sierra Leone’s parliament passed a new law making it a criminal offence to hide Ebola patients.<\/p>\n
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