Physical Wellness

Ebola Kills Another Spanish Priest

By Peter R | Update Date: Sep 25, 2014 08:35 PM EDT

A Spanish priest infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone died of the disease on Thursday in Madrid.

According to news reports, the death of 69-year old Manuel Garcia Viejo makes it the second death of a Spanish priest in less than a month. Seventy-five year old Miguel Pajares died last month after he contracted the virus in Liberia where he was working with the infected. Pajares was among those who received experimental drug Zmapp, ABC News reported.

Viejo, who was working in the city of Lunsar when he got infected, was the medical director of Hospital Order of San Juan de Dios. He was flown back home on Monday in a military plane and was then said to be in conscious and stable, LA Times reported. His conditioned worsened on Wednesday.

The current Ebola outbreak has killed nearly 3,000 people in five West African nations with Sierra Leone and Liberia among the worst affected by the virus. Earlier, United States Center for Disease Control warned that if the efforts to combat Ebola are not stepped, 1.4 million people could be affected.

In related developments, President Obama termed Ebola a threat to regional and global security, while addressing a gathering of world leaders at United Nations.

"In Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, public health systems are near collapse. Economic growth is slowing dramatically. If this epidemic is not stopped, this disease could cause a humanitarian catastrophe across the region. Right now, patients are being left to die in the streets because there's nowhere to put them and no one to help them. One health worker in Sierra Leone compared fighting this outbreak to fighting a forest fire with spray bottles. With our help, they can put out the blaze," he reportedly said according to Voice of America, while calling for greater international cooperation to combat the outbreak.  

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