Spain says it has imported a U.S.-made experimental drug to treat a Spanish missionary priest who was evacuated from Liberia last week after testing positive for Ebola.

A Health Ministry statement Monday said the ZMapp drug, made by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. of San Diego, was obtained in Geneva this weekend and brought to Madrid to treat Miguel Pajares.

The Ivory Coast announced Monday that it has banned all flights from countries hit by Ebola as part of steps to prevent the deadly virus from reaching the west African nation.

The government said in a statement that it has forbidden all "carriers from transporting passengers" from these countries.

It had all the makings of a public-health horror story: an outbreak of a wildly deadly virus on the doorstep of the nation's capital, with dozens of lab monkeys dead, multiple people testing positive, and no precedent in this country on how to contain it.

Americans' introduction to the Ebola virus came 25 years ago in an office park near Washington Dulles International Airport, a covert crisis that captivated the public only years later when it formed the basis of a bestselling book.

West Africa is counting the cost of measures to contain the deadly Ebola epidemic, as unprecedented restrictions cause food shortages, transport snarls and soaring prices, sparking fears people could die of hunger.

The United States' top disease detective calls Ebola a "painful, dreadful, merciless virus."

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak in West Africa an international emergency, killing more than 900 people and spreading.

Zambia has banned the entry of citizens from countries hit by the deadly Ebola virus, which is ravaging nations to the north of the continent, the health ministry said Saturday.

Clinical trials of vaccines for the deadly Ebola virus should soon get underway and will likely be ready for widespread use by early next year, the World Health Organization said Saturday.

Residents of northern Liberia have existed in a state of peril for months as the deadly Ebola epidemic swept through the region. Now they face a new threat as measures to stem the spread of the virus spark fears of starvation.

Guinea on Saturday said it was closing its land borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone in a bid to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus which has claimed hundreds of lives in the three west African countries.

"In order to better control contact" with people suspected of carrying the Ebola virus, "Guinea has decided to temporarily close its land borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone," government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara said.

A Saudi man who died while showing symptoms similar to Ebola was not infected with the virus, according to initial test results cited by health authorities on Saturday.

The health ministry announced Wednesday that the man had died of a heart attack.