Liberia is set to receive a shipment of the experimental drug ZMapp to treat people infected with the Ebola virus.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf requested the drug from the US, and US officials put Liberian health authorities in contact with Mapp Biopharmaceutical, the manufacturer of the drug.

Positive results from the ZMapp were seen in both US nationals repatriated after becoming infected with Ebola, but the drug has otherwise only been tested on monkeys, and is in the early experimental phase.

Earlier, Spanish missionary Miguel Pajares, who contracted Ebola in Liberia, died in a Madrid hospital despite having been treated with ZMapp for the last few days.

However, with 1,013 people dead from the virus in West Africa and many more infected, ZMapp appears to be one of the few options to help save lives and control the spread of the disease, and Mapp have exhausted their stocks after sending supplies to Liberia at no cost.

After lengthy discussions, a World Health Organisation (WHO) panel found that “it is ethical to offer unproven Ebola interventions as potential treatment or prevention” in this case, but clinical trials should also still be performed.