DAKAR, Senegal (August 12, 2014) The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has topped 1,000, the World Health Organization says.
The U.N. health agency says 1,013 people have died in the outbreak, which has hit Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and possibly Nigeria.
Authorities have recorded 1,848 suspected, probable or confirmed cases of the disease, which causes a high fever, vomiting and bleeding.
The outbreak was first identified in March in Guinea, but it likely started months earlier.
The updated WHO tally includes figures from Aug. 7- 9 when 52 more people died and 69 more were infected.
Among the dead is a Spanish missionary priest who was evacuated from Liberia last week after testing positive for the virus.
A spokesman at a hospital in Madrid says Miguel Pajares, 75, died Tuesday.
Over the weekend, Spain's Health Ministry obtained a course of the U.S.-made experimental drug ZMapp to treat the priest, but it didn't say if Pajares was ever given the drug.
Two American missionaries being treated in Atlanta also have been given ZMapp.