Second Spanish Ebola victim dies in Madrid

26 September 2014 14:31 (Last updated 26 September 2014 14:32)

Priest Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, passes away after having caught virus while working in Sierra Leone

A second Spanish citizen from Sierra Leone in West Africa has died in a Madrid hospital after being diagnosed as suffering Ebola

Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, a Spanish priest who had been working in the northwestern Sierra Leone city of Lunsar, died on Friday in the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, the hospital announced.

Miguel Pajares, 79, another Spanish priest working in Liberia, died from Ebola on August 13.

Ebola has killed nearly 3,000 people in West Africa in recent months, according to the World HealthOrganization.

The agency warned this week that more than 20,000 people could be infected in the next six weeks if authorities failed to take adequate measures.

A recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of cases could increase to 1.4 million in Liberia and Sierra Leone alone by mid-January if efforts to counter the epidemic are not boosted.