US NBC News cameraman tests positive for Ebola in Liberia

A US freelance cameraman working for NBC News in Liberia has tested positive for the Ebola virus, the network said, making him the fifth American, known to have contracted the disease in West Africa.

The cameraman and writer, aged 33, who has worked in Liberia for the past three years and has covered the recent Ebola outbreak for various United States media outlets, would be flown home for treatment, NBC said.

Four other NBC News team members who have shown no signs of infection also would return to the US to undergo a precautionary quarantine, the network said. The outbreak has killed at least 3,300 people in West Africa.

NBC declined to give the man's name at the request of his family. He began experiencing symptoms on Wednesday that included aches and fatigue.

He was hired on Tuesday to serve as a second cameraman for NBC News chief medical editor and correspondent Dr Nancy Snyderman, who has been with three other network employees on assignment in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. Immediately after beginning to feel ill and discovering he was running a slight fever, the cameraman quarantined himself and sought medical advice.

He then went to a Medicins Sans Frontieres treatment centre to be tested for the virus, and the positive result came back less than 12 hours later, NBC said.