US doctor recovers from Ebola

Kent Brantly, a US doctor who was taken home for treatment after contracting Ebola while working in Liberia, is to be released from hospital in the US state of Georgia, news broadcaster CNN said on Thursday, citing a hospital spokeswoman.

Brantly, who was given an experimental serum called ZMapp in Liberia, was one of the first Ebola cases to be treated on US soil.

US officials were also to give an update on the condition of Nancy Writebol, another American aid worker evacuated to Atlanta, Georgia, after becoming ill with the deadly virus in Liberia. She, too, was treated with ZMapp.

Three sick Liberians receiving the serum were showing "very positive signs of recovery," Liberia's information ministry said earlier this week. However, a Spanish priest with Ebola died after being given the same untested treatment. The US manufacturer says supplies of the drug are now exhausted.

At least 1,350 people had died of the disease as of August 18, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, with Liberia so far the worst-hit in terms of fatalities. Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria have also been hit by the outbreak.

Security danger

The special representative of the United Nations secretary general for Liberia, Karin Landgren, has warned that the outbreak could undermine Liberia's stability.

"Ebola's impact now extends far beyond the families and communities of those infected with the virus," she said.

"This situation poses a threat to broader public health, food security, physical security and the national economy," she added.

Her comments come a day after riots broke out in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, after the government quarantined the country's biggest slum in a bid to curb the spread of the disease.

Residents clashed with armed security guards and police officers charged with enforcing the quarantining of the West Point slum, home to an estimated 75,000 people. Four were reportedly injured, and police were said to have used tear gas and fired warning shots into the air with live ammunition.

The situation was reported to be calm on Thursday.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had ordered the area cordoned off after 37 Ebola patients fled an isolation ward over the weekend. She also imposed a nationwide nighttime curfew. All the patients later returned.

Residents of the slum fear the barricade could cause a lack of food supplies.

Liberia has so far reported 972 Ebola cases, of which 576 have died, according to WHO.

tj/nm (dpa, AP, AFP)