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A Spanish missionary who caught Ebola in Liberia has died of the disease.

Miguel Pajares, 75, died today at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, where he was being treated in isolation.

He was evacuated from Liberia last week to Spain, where he was reportedly given the experimental ZMapp drug, which had not been tested on humans but was hailed as a miracle drug after dramatic results when administered on Ebola victims in the USA.

Mr. Pajares had been working with Ebola patients at the San Jose de Monrovia Hospital when he became infected.

He was part of the San Juan de Dios order, a Spain-based Catholic humanitarian group that runs hospitals around the world.

The priest’s order had earlier said he would be given the serum, which aims to boost the body’s immune response to Ebola with antibodies grown in tobacco plants.

Two American aid workers given ZMapp after also catching Ebola in Liberia are said to be improving but there is no way to know whether the drug is responsible or if they are recovering naturally like other survivors.

It is next due to be given to two doctors in Liberia and the manufacturer, Mapp Biopharmaceutical, said it had already run out of its supply in response to demand from an unidentified West African country.

The World Health Organisation held a meeting to debate the ethics of using an untested drug in attempts to treat Ebola, balancing the risks of side effects with the disease’s rampant spread.

It kills around 60 per cent of people infected and more than 1,000 people have died so far, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.

•Adapted from reports by AP and The Independent (UK). Photo shows late Miguel Pajares, the first European to die from Ebola.

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