Updated 9:14 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 25 (RIA Novosti) - A Spanish priest who became infected with the Ebola virus while serving at a Sierra Leone hospital died Thursday in a Madrid hospital, Spanish media said citing medical sources.
Brother Manuel García Viejo, 69, has been earlier flown to Madrid's Carlos III hospital while suffering advance stages of the deadly disease.
This marks the second time Spain registers an Ebola-related death since the recent outbreak of the disease in West Africa.
In August, 75-year-old missionary Miguel Pajares died five days after having been flown to Spain from Liberia with symptoms of Ebola. His treatment with experimental drug ZMapp was ineffective.
The worst Ebola outbreak in history started in February in Guinea and quickly spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Nigeria.
According to the latest WHO estimates, the Ebola death toll has risen to just under 3,000 since the epidemic started.
Fatality rates are estimated to be at 70.7 percent in Guinea, 72.3 percent in Liberia and 69.0 percent in Sierra Leone.
There is no officially approved medication for the disease. However, several countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, are currently working on vaccines. Earlier in August, first humans were treated for the first time with the experimental ZMapp serum. Two US citizens and two doctors from Nigeria and Uganda showed signs of improvement following the treatment. Spanish priest Pajares and Liberian doctor Abraham Borbor did not survive.
The World Health Organization concluded on August 12 that it was ethical to use experimental drugs to treat patients infected with the deadly Ebola virus.
