Texas doctor who moved to Africa to help ebola patients has contracted the disease which has now spread to Nigeria after an infected businessman boarded a plane.

Source: A Texas doctor who had moved to Liberia to work for a medical charity been infected with the deadly virus ebola. 

Dr Kent Brantly, who had moved to the country before the outbreak, is now being treated for the disease at a Liberia hospital.

Ebola, one of the world's deadliest viruses, has been spreading through West Africa, with the latest case being confirmed in Nigeria after an infected businessman traveled there by plane. 

See Dr. Kent, wife and kids..

Dr Brantly, medical director for the North-Carolina-based company Samaritan's Purse, had been part of a team working in grueling conditions at an ebola ward in Monrovia.

The married father-of-two had to wear a special suit to protect him from the highly contagious disease, while working in an isolation unit in the stifling African heat. 

Although his family had been living in Liberia with him, a spokesperson for Samaritan's Purse said they were in the U.S. when he fell ill. 

Deadly outbreak

The current outbreak of ebola has spread to at least four countries in West Africa since the start of the year. 

So far, it has claimed 672 victims, and infected 1,093. 

Countries affected include Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.

The disease spreads through contact with blood, body fluids or contact with tissue from infected people or animals.

It has only a 10 percent survival rate.