A man walks by a sign that reads "Ebola is real" in Monrovia, Liberia, October 21, 2014. (Reuters)
An official says a ninth Sierra Leonean doctor has been infected with Ebola, underscoring the devastating toll the disease is taking on health care workers.
Abass Kamara, a Health Ministry spokesman, said that Dr. Songo Mbriwa tested positive for Ebola on Wednesday. Mbriwa is a top military doctor and was working at the Hastings Ebola treatment center in the east end of the capital.
The disease is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids of the sick, putting health workers at particular risk and it has devastated their ranks. Nearly 600 of them have become infected in the West African outbreak, many in the hardest-hit countries.