Freetown - Sierra Leone said on Tuesday it would seek a shipment of a controversial experimental drug to fight an Ebola outbreak which has killed 315 in the impoverished west African nation.

The ministry of health told AFP it had prepared a letter to send to the American manufacturer of ZMapp, an unlicensed serum being made available in neighbouring Liberia.

"The WHO has just approved our request for the drug ZMapp to be made available to both Sierra Leone and Liberia," ministry spokesperson Sidi Yahya Tunis told AFP.

"We have just finished writing a letter which we will send to the manufacturer, copied to WHO, for the drug to be made available to us. Read more http://www.newzville.com/2014/08/sierra-leone-appeals-for-experimental.html