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Norwegian employee of Doctors Without Borders contracts Ebola

OSLO, October 6. /TASS/. Doctors Without Borders said in a report on Monday that one of its employees in Sierra Leone had tested positive for Ebola.

The specialist, whose name is not identified, was put into isolation on Sunday on suspicion of having contracted Ebola. Later on Sunday a lab test confirmed that the patient was infected with the virus.

The report said he would be shortly airlifted to Norway and hospitalized in Oslo.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the death toll from the Ebola virus outbreak has exceeded 3,500 people out of a total of 7,500 officially registered cases.

The Ebola virus disease (EVD), previously known as the Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe illness in humans, often fatal, according to the WHO website.

The virus is passed on to people from wild animals and can be transmitted from humans to humans. The average EVD case mortality rate is some 50%.

The first outbreaks of the EVD occurred in remote Central African villages, near tropical rainforests. However, major urban and rural areas have been involved in the most recent outbreak in western Africa. No licensed treatment has yet been proven to be able to neutralize the virus but a number of blood, immunological and drug medications are under development. There are no licensed Ebola vaccines yet.