An official in Sierra Leone says another of the country's leading physicians has died from Ebola.

Ebola has killed more than 1,000 people in a West African outbreak that has also hit Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria. Many of the dead are health workers, who are often working with inadequate supplies and protection.

Sidie Yayah Tunis, director of communications for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, announced that Modupeh Cole died Wednesday. The U.S.-trained Cole was one of the lead doctors working in the Ebola isolation ward in Connaught Hospital in Freetown, the capital.

Cole's death comes on the heels of that of another physician who was leading Sierra Leone's fight against Ebola, Sheik Humarr Khan.

Officials at the World Health Organization say they considered giving Khan an experimental Ebola drug but decided against it. The drug was later given to three Westerners.

Khan, who died on July 29, caught Ebola after leading Sierra Leone's fight against it.

In an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday, WHO said Khan's doctors considered administering an untested drug, ZMapp, but decided against it. WHO tried to airlift Khan out of the country, but "his condition had deteriorated too much to be transported safely."

The revelation that the drug had been considered for an African doctor was first reported in The New York Times on Tuesday.

Two Americans who are still alive and a Spanish priest who died were treated with ZMapp.

Research on the experimental Ebola drug was jointly conducted in Canada and the U.S.