Ebola outbreak: US doctor Kent Brantly tests positive for deadly virus

US doctor Kent Brantly, who has been working with Ebola patients in Liberia, has tested positive for the deadly virus, an aid organization said Saturday.

North Carolina-based Samaritan’s Purse issued a news release saying that Dr. Kent Brantly tested positive for the Ebola disease and was being treated at a hospital in Monrovia, Liberia.

He is the medical director for the aid organization’s case management center in Monrovia.

Dr. Kent Brantly, 33, has been working with Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia since October 2013 as part of the charity’s post-residency program for doctors, said the group’s spokeswoman Melissa Strickland. The organization’s website says he had worked as a family practice physician in Fort Worth, Texas.

The highly contagious virus is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Photos of Dr. Kent Brantly working in Liberia show him in white coveralls made of a synthetic material that he wore for hours a day while treating Ebola patients.

Kent Brantly was quoted in a posting on the organization’s website earlier this year about efforts to maintain an isolation ward for patients.

Strickland says that Kent Brantly’s wife and children had been living with him in Africa, but they are currently in the US.

Ebola virus has killed 672 in several African countries since the outbreak began earlier this year.