Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the US, has died according to the hospital where he was being treated.

"It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am," hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr Duncan became ill after he arrived in Texas from his home in Liberia two weeks ago on 20 September.

Due to the nature of the deadly virus he showed no symptoms when he passed through an airport health screening on his way to the US, but fell sick a few days - suffering from a fever, headache and abdominal pain.

Fearful of his condition, Mr Duncan visited the emergency room of Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas on 24 September, but was sent home. The hospital has since acknowledged that Mr Duncan had told them during this assessment that he had recently been to West Africa.

On 28 September he was admitted to hospital, where he was kept in isolation. By Saturday, Mr Duncan's condition had worsened, escalating from serious to critical.

His death comes after doctors were unable to treat him the experimental drug ZMapp, after supplies ran out. The drug had been linked with the survival of American doctors and aid workers. However, there is no approved treatment or vaccine against the virus.

See the Ebola outbreak mapped Show all 7 1 /7 See the Ebola outbreak mapped See the Ebola outbreak mapped 25 March 2014 This outbreak of the Ebola virus first emerged in the Guéckédou region of Guinea, at a crossroads with both Liberia and Sierra Leone See the Ebola outbreak mapped 31 March On 31 March the WHO confirmed the outbreak was now international, spreading first into Liberia's northern-most Lofa region See the Ebola outbreak mapped 27 May The virus spread to Sierra Leone at the end of May - just as agencies were hoping the worst was over See the Ebola outbreak mapped 27 July In Sierra Leone the virus boomed, and then it spread to Nigeria when the Liberian diplomat Patrick Sawyer flew from Monrovia to Lagos See the Ebola outbreak mapped 9 August The Nigeria cases sparked fears around the world, and there have now been deaths in Spain and Saudi Arabia involving people who had travelled to West Africa. The numbers of cases continue to rise See the Ebola outbreak mapped 17-20 September In mid-September, Senegal confirmed its first case linked to the Ebola outbreak, a development the WHO described as a top priority emergency. Numbers of cases continued to grow exponentially in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, as experts warned they could number one million by January if not contained See the Ebola outbreak mapped 8 October Two cases of Ebola have now been reported in the US and Europe - the first times the virus has been contracted among health workers outside Africa

Mr Duncan's diagnosis has heightened fears that the deadly virus could spread from West Africa, where the epidemic started in March and has since killed more than 3,400 people.

Following Mr Duncan's death, US Secretary of State John Kerry made an urgent appeal for nations to "step up" their response to the virus and said more money, equipment and personnel were needed in the fight, the Huffington Post reported.

He added that while progress in combating the disease was being bade, it was far too slow.

Speaking with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Kerry said it is essential for airlines to keep flying to west Africa and for borders to remain open to allow for the movement of assistance and medical staff.

Officials in Dallas are now working to keep the virus contained, and around 48 people with whom Duncan had been in contact are being monitored.

The four people living in the northeast Dallas apartment where Duncan stayed have been isolated in a private residence.

Everyone who potentially had contact with Mr Duncan will be monitored for 21 days, the normal incubation period for the disease.

Health experts also trying to calm residents who fear they may contract Ebola, as the disease can be spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an already sick person. Experts have stressed that the chance of the disease spreading across the US is very small.