U.S. Missionary Doctor Infected With Ebola

An American missionary doctor working in Liberia has tested positive for Ebola, the mission organization SIM USA reported on Sept. 2.

It is not known how the doctor contracted the virus since he was not working in the Ebola isolation unit at SIM’S ELWA hospital in Monrovia, but was instead working to treat obstetrics patients at the hospital.

Once the doctor realized he had been infected with the Ebola virus due to the onset of symptoms, he isolated himself. He “is doing well and is in good spirits,” according to a SIM USA statement on the case.

This is the third U.S. aid worker to be infected with Ebola in this current outbreak in West Africa. The two others, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, were evacuated to the U.S. for treatment. Both have survived the infection and were released last month from the hospital.

More than 1,500 people have died so far in the current outbreak. Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently said that outbreak is “spiraling out of control.”