Catholic Hospital In Liberia Closes After Director, Nurses Contract Ebola

A Catholic hospital in Monrovia, Liberia has shut down after its medical director recently died from Ebola, and six other hospital workers have tested positive for the deadly virus.

St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital closed its doors this week, after its Cameroonian hospital director passed away after contracting Ebola. Six other staff, including two nuns and a 75-five year old Spanish priest, have also tested positive for the dangerous disease. The priest, Miguel Pajares, is reportedly to be returned to Spain to receive treatment sometime on Wednesday.

Pajares previously expressed his interest in being repatriated to Spain, telling CNN last week: "We hope they can evacuate us. It would be marvelous, because we know that, if they take us to Spain, at least we will be in good hands."

The Spanish government denied that one of the nuns, who is a citizen of Spain, had contracted the deadly virus, instead arguing that only Pajares was infected.

The U.S. has also recently repatriated two aid workers who also contracted the virus in Liberia. Over the past few days, doctor Kent Brantly and clinic worker Nancy Writebol have been flown into Atlanta, Georgia to receive treatment at the Emory University Hospital, considered to be one of the top Ebola-treatment hospitals in the nation. The two were infected with the virus while working at a clinic run by Samaritan's Purse evangelical group in Liberia.

Both Brantly and Writebol have reportedly received doses of an experimental serum that, prior to them, had never been used on humans. Although they took a great risk in taking the serum, they are reportedly said to be showing signs of improvement as they remain in high-security quarantine at the Atlanta-area hospital.

The recent Ebola outbreak in Africa is the largest in history, killing 934 since it hit West Africa in March 2014. The deaths appear to be escalating, as there were 45 deaths in only three days in the beginning of August.