A United Nations employee who contracted the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa has died after arriving in Germany for medical treatment, a report says.
A Sudanese doctor, who had arrived in Germany from Liberia last week, died Monday night in the city of Leipzig in Saxony state, St Georg Hospital said in a brief statement on Tuesday.
"Despite intensive medical care and the best efforts by medical staff, the 56-year-old UN employee succumbed to the serious infection,” it noted.
Germany has previous treated two other Ebola patients infected in Sierra Leone, despite growing fears at the time of a potential outbreak of the deadly disease in Europe.
The patients included a Senegalese who was treated in Hamburg and released on October 4, and a Ugandan doctor currently undergoing treatment in Frankfurt.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned last week that the spread of the Ebola virus across Europe is almost inevitable.
The WHO made the comments just hours after Europe's first case of Ebola infection was confirmed in Spain.
The infection rate is likely to exceed 10,000 new cases per week in the next two months, the WHO said.
The Ebola epidemic has so far claimed the lives of 4,447 people all around the world, while more than 8,914 people have been infected. The virus has been most devastating in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding. The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.There is currently no known cure for Ebola.