The first European death: Spanish priest succumbs to Ebola virus

The 75-year-old Spanish missionary, who was airlifted back to Spain, has died in a hospital in Madrid.

17:37 12 August 2014

75-year-old Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, who contracted the Ebola virus while working in West Africa and who was airlifted back to Spain from Liberia last week, has died in a hospital in Madrid. He was treated with experimental drug, Zmapp.

The outbreak that affected Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, has killed more than 1,000 people so far since it was first reported in February.

Meanwhile, a World Health Organisation panel in Geneva has approved the ethics of using Zmapp. It said that it was ethical to fight the Ebola outbreak by giving victims vaccines and drugs, with side-effects and efficiency had yet to be proven.

St Joseph’s hospital in Monrovia where the priest died is now closed because of the outbreak.

A Congolese nun died there on Saturday, days after its director, Patrick Nshamdze, also died.