A Liberian doctor who contracted the deadly Ebola virus has died despite being given an experimental drug.
The Liberian information ministry said Dr Abraham Borbor had been improving but died on Sunday night (local time) despite being treated with Zmapp.
The same drug was used to treat two American health workers who have now been cleared of the virus.
Two other Liberian health workers who received the drug are still in hospital.
Before being used in this latest outbreak, Zmapp had never been tried on humans and the laboratory that produced it said there was none left.
Japanese authorities said an anti-influenza drug had the potential to fight Ebola and that it was willing to provide it at the request of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The death toll of the current Ebola outbreak in west Africa is now more than 1,400 people.
The UN’s new pointman on Ebola said the fight against the epidemic was a “war” which could take another six months and warned that airlines boycotting the region were hampering the response.
David Nabarro, a British physician the UN appointed to coordinate the global response to the crisis, was in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown for the fifth day of a tour of the region.
“The effort to defeat Ebola is not a battle but a war which requires everybody working together, hard and effectively,” he said.
“I hope it will be done in six months but we have to do it until it is completed.”
Dr Nabarro said airlines halting flights to and from the afflicted countries were making the UN’s efforts “a whole lot harder”.
“By isolating the country, it makes it difficult for the UN to do its work,” he said.
Instead, he issued a “really strong request to everyone to help us find a way to continue having airlines fly into these capitals so that we can do our job properly”.
“Help us to know how we can do this and at the same time assure you that you are not exposed to risk,” he added.
UN officials pledged to step up efforts against the lethal tropical virus, which has infected more than 2,600 and killed 1,427 in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria this year.
ABC/AFP