Spanish Priest Dies of Ebola
A Spanish priest working in Liberia has died of Ebola, a Madrid hospital confirmed Tuesday.
Miguel Pajares was a 75-year-old Spanish missionary working at a hospital in Liberia to combat the spreading Ebola virus. He tested positive for the deadly virus last week, and was expatriated to Spain where he then died Tuesday at Carlos III Hospital in Madrid.
Pajares was reportedly set to receive the experimental drug ZMapp, a serum created in San Diego, California, to combat the virus's progression. However, the serum was reportedly sent to Madrid over the weekend, and it remains unclear if the priest received the serum too late to save his life.
Two American aid workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and clinic worker Nancy Writebol, also received doses of ZMapp and are said to be recovering at the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
ZMapp and another experimental drug for Ebola have not been used on humans prior to this recent viral outbreak, and the World Health Organization declared this week that it was ethical to use drugs untested on humans to treat Ebola victims in West Africa. ZMapp, which is supposed to help boost the immune system of an Ebola-stricken patient, was previously tested on monkeys.
"If there are drugs that can save lives — as animal studies have suggested — shouldn't we use them to save lives?" Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, assistant director-general at WHO, said at a press conference on Tuesday, adding that it is "very important to not give false hope to anybody that Ebola can be treated now. This is absolutely not the case."
