Advertisement

Cuban sent to fight Ebola in Guinea dies of malaria

Conakry (AFP) - A Cuban man working in Guinea to help battle the killer Ebola virus has died of malaria, the west African nation said on Monday.

Jorge Juan Guerra Rodriguez, 60, was working as an administrator with a team of Cuban medical personnel sent to west Africa this month to stem the spread of the virus.

He died of cerebral malaria on Sunday, the Guinean government's Ebola response coordinator Sakoba Keita and Cuban officials told AFP.

"He will be buried here in Conakry on Tuesday, in accordance with the instructions of the Cuban foreign minister," Keita said.

Cuba's health ministry said Rodriguez had not been in contact with treatment centres or with Ebola patients, but he was given two tests for Ebola, both of which were negative.

He was initially treated for diarrhoea, a symptom of both malaria and Ebola, before his health rapidly deteriorated.

"In the early morning hours... his health was worsening, and eventually he suffered multi-organ failure and died in the afternoon," Cuba's health ministry said.

The economist, from Sancti Spiritus in central Cuba, travelled to Guinea on October 6 and began showing signs of illness on October 22.

Cuba has sent around 250 doctors and nurses to Ebola-stricken west Africa -- some 165 of them to Sierra Leone -- help combat the spread of Ebola.

The virus has already killed more than 4,900 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people around the world each year, mainly children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Both ailments have similar symptoms, including fever, aches, vomiting and diarrhoea. While Ebola is passed by contact with bodily fluids, malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes.

Cuba's response to the Ebola epidemic has won plaudits from humanitarian workers who say the international community's reaction has been lacking.

Eventually, Cuba plans to deploy more than 450 medical personnel to west Africa.