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Italian Ebola patient's health worsens

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Italian Ebola patient's health worsens
Photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP

The health of an Italian doctor who contracted Ebola in west Africa is deteriorating, the specialist clinic in Rome treating him said Saturday.

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The 50-year-old infectious diseases medic -- who has not been publicly identified -- was repatriated on Tuesday from Sierra Leone with a fever and given an experimental drug to try to combat the often-deadly virus.

But since Friday there has been a "progressive aggravation" of the man's condition, the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute treating him said in a statement.

"He has started to have gastro-intestinal problems (nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea). He has a high fever, currently over 39 degrees Celsius," it said.

The doctor -- who became the first Italian to be infected with Ebola while working for an Italian medical association fighting the epidemic in Africa -- was not showing signs of bleeding at this stage, however.

Ebola, a disease transmitted through the bodily fluids of infected people, can result in death from uncontrollable bleeding and organ failure. The current Ebola epidemic in west Africa -- the worst ever recorded -- has so far killed around 5,700 people.

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