Ebola recovery

A second American aid worker has been released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia after being treated for Ebola.

Fifty-nine-year-old Nancy Writebol was discharged Thursday along with another aid worker, 33-year-old Kent Brantly, after being treated with an experimental serum called ZMapp.

The two aid workers had contracted the deadly virus while working in Liberia and were flown back to the US for treatment at the beginning of August. They were among the first cases to be treated on American soil.

"I am forever grateful to God for sparing my life … please continue to pray for Liberia," Brantly said at a press conference after his release.

Franklin Graham, president of North Carolina-based Samaritan's Purse, the aid organization for which Brantly works, said in a statement that the group was celebrating his recovery.

"Today I join our team around the world in giving thanks to God as we celebrate Dr. Kent Brantly's recovery from Ebola," Graham's statement read.

Security danger

The special representative of the United Nations secretary general for Liberia, Karin Landgren, has warned that the outbreak could undermine Liberia's stability.

"Ebola's impact now extends far beyond the families and communities of those infected with the virus," she said.

"This situation poses a threat to broader public health, food security, physical security and the national economy," she added.

Her comments come a day after riots broke out in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, after the government quarantined the country's biggest slum in a bid to curb the spread of the disease.

Residents clashed with armed security guards and police officers charged with enforcing the quarantine of West Point, where an estimated 75,000 people. Four people were reportedly injured, and police were said to have used tear gas and fired warning shots into the air.

The situation was reported to be calm on Thursday.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had ordered the area cordoned off after 37 Ebola patients fled an isolation ward over the weekend. She also imposed a nationwide nighttime curfew. All the patients later returned.

Residents of the slum fear the barricade could cause a lack of food supplies.

Liberia has so far reported 972 Ebola cases, of which 576 have died, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

ZMapp treatment

Three sick Liberians receiving the ZMapp serum were showing "very positive signs of recovery," Liberia's information ministry said earlier this week. However, a Spanish priest with Ebola died after being given the same untested treatment. The US manufacturer says supplies of the drug are now exhausted.

At least 1,350 people had died of the disease as of August 18, the WHO said on Wednesday, with Liberia so far the worst-hit in terms of fatalities. Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria have also been hit by the outbreak.

sb/glb (Reuters, AP, dpa, AFP)