Cuban Doctor Treating Ebola Patients In Sierra Leone Tests Positive, Will Go To Geneva For Treatment

A doctor from a 165-member Cuban medical team sent to Sierra Leone to address the Ebola outbreak, has tested positive for the deadly virus and will be taken to a special unit in Geneva for treatment. Felix Baez Sarria tested positive for Ebola on Monday, the Cuban Ministry of Health said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Baez Sarria has not reportedly shown any complications yet and is "hemodynamically stable," the statement from the Cuban health ministry said, adding that the World Health Organization had proposed moving him to the University Hospital of Geneva in Switzerland. Baez Sarria, a specialist in internal medicine, was treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, which is one of the worst affected countries.

“Our collaborator is being tended to by a team of British professionals with experience in treating patients who have displayed the disease and they have maintained constant communication with our brigade,” the statement said, according to Reuters.

Baez Sarria was first treated at "Kerry Town" -- an Ebola treatment center -- in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, after he developed a high fever on Sunday. The Freetown hospital is designated to treat UN officials.

Cuba, which has over 50,000 medical workers in more than 60 countries, had dispatched 256 medical workers to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to help tackle Ebola, and has received global praise for the move. It was one of the first countries, according to The Associated Press, to openly announce assistance against the Ebola virus, which has so far killed more than 5,000 people, mostly in West Africa.