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11th Sierra Leonean doctor dies from Ebola

A health worker wearing a personal protective equipment works on November 11, 2014 in the red zone of the Hastings treatment centre in Hastings, outside Freetown, Sierra Leone. FRANCISCO LEONG/AFP/Getty Images

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – A health official in Sierra Leone says another of the country’s doctors has died from Ebola.

Dr. Brima Kargbo, the country’s chief medical officer, confirmed Thursday that Dr. Victor Willoughby died earlier in the day. He had tested positive on Saturday.

Willoughby was one of Sierra Leone’s most senior physicians. He is the 11th doctor in the country to die from the disease that is ravaging West Africa, taking a particularly heavy toll on health workers.

Because Ebola is spread through bodily fluids, it is only transmitted through close contact. It is often called the “caregivers’ disease” because those infected are typically family members caring for the sick or health workers treating them.

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