Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola death outside Lagos –
a doctor in the oil hub of Port Harcourt.
Nigeria’s Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the Port
Harcourt doctor had died on 22 August, but the results of the tests have only
just been made public.
The doctor, who secretly treated a diplomat who had contact
with the index case, Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, has died of Ebola in
Nigeria.
His wife has also taken ill and has been quarantined in Port
Harcourt. Interestingly, the diplomat the doctor treated is still alive.
The diplomat, who was part of the team who met with Patrick
Sawyer in Lagos, flew to Port Harcourt, Rivers State for treatment, evading
Nigerian federal government surveillance for the disease. The late doctor then
took him to a hotel for treatment.
As a result of this, 70 people have been quarantined. The
doctor's hospital, Good Heart Hospital in G.R.A Port Harcourt, has been shut
down. The unnamed hotel, where the secret treatment took place, has also been
shut down.
The Minister of Health and the Rivers State government are
expected to make a statement on the incident tomorrow.
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