Missionary Group Says a Third American Has Been Infected With Ebola

UNITED NATIONS (TheBlaze/AP) — A missionary group says another American doctor has contracted the Ebola virus while working at a hospital in Liberia.

Two Liberians greet each other with their elbows instead of shaking hands in a bar of Monrovia on September 2, 2014. The Ebola virus, transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, has killed more than 1,500 people in four countries since the start of the year -- almost 700 of them in Liberia. (DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

In a statement issued Tuesday, Serving In Mission said the unnamed doctor had been treating women in the obstetrics ward of a hospital in the Liberian capital.

The group doesn't know exactly how the doctor contracted Ebola since the ward is separate from the area where Ebola patients are being treated. The virus, however, can be spread through vaginal fluids.

“My heart was deeply saddened, but my faith was not shaken, when I learned another of our missionary doctors contracted Ebola,” Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA, said in a statement. “As a global mission, we are surrounding our missionary with prayer, as well as our Liberian SIM/ELWA colleagues, who continue fighting the Ebola epidemic in Liberia. We have gifted Liberian doctors, medical staff and support staff who are carrying on the fight.”

Last month two Americans, including one from SIM, were evacuated to the United States for treatment after contracting Ebola in Liberia. Both received an experimental drug known as ZMapp and recovered from Ebola after further treatment at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The drug manufacturer recently said it ran out of supplies of Zmapp and it will take months to produce more. It is unclear if the experimental drug had any positive effect on these two Americans as it has not been through clinical trials yet.

More on the Ebola outbreak front:

• Obama addresses Ebola: In a video released by the White House, President Barack Obama told those in the afflicted regions of West Africa that while stopping the spread of the virus won't be easy, "we know how to do it." Watch the message:

• Losing battle: Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday that the world is losing the battle against Ebola with West African treatment centers being reduced to "places where people go to die alone." The group's President Joanne Liu said her organization is completely overwhelmed by Ebola outbreak in four West African countries. She said treatment centers can offer little more than palliative care and called on other countries to contribute civilian and military medical personnel familiar with biological disasters. At the same time, World Health Organization Director Margaret Chan warned that the outbreak will only "get worse before it will get better."

• Food prices rise: Countries hardest hit in the Ebola outbreak have seen food prices go up as much as 150 percent, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Part of the reason and why it's expected to only get worse is because farmers cannot reach some fields, many airlines have suspended flights and seaports are seeing less traffic.

People wait during a food distribution by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Dolo's Town, some 60 km east of Monrovia, quarantined as a measure to contain the spread of Ebola on September 2, 2014. (DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

As of last week, more than 3,000 people in West Africa were infected with the Ebola virus, resulting in more than 1,500 deaths, according to WHO.