President Barack Obama appointed an ebola tsar for the US, and the government said a Texas health worker who may have had contact with specimens from an ebola patient was isolated on a cruise ship.

Barack Obama has conceded it "may be appropriate" to choose an Ebola "tsar" to lead the US response against the disease.

The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States died today, a little more than a week after his illness exposed gaps in the nation’s defences against the disease and set off a scramble to track down anyone exposed to him.