Ebola claims first victim in Nigeria

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A Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who is a consultant at the Ministry of Finance, who had been quarantined since falling ill after arriving Lagos for a conference last Sunday owing to Ebola disease, has died.

A Liberian government official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said the news of Sawyer's death was relayed to Liberia by the Nigerian embassy on Friday morning.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that Sawyer might have contracted the virus from his sister, who died at a Catholic Hospital about three weeks ago. He had told friends that his sister's husband had fled the home after the wife died and that he convinced him to report to health authorities to check for signs of Ebola.

The Lagos State Government had announced that Sawyer was being tested for the deadly Ebola virus in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the World Health Organisation in Dakar.

Sawyer's death is the first recorded case of one of the world's deadliest diseases in Nigeria.

The virus has killed 632 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak began in February, straining a string of weak health system despite international help.

According to World Health Organisation, the virus, which starts off with flu-like symptoms and often ends with horrific haemorrhaging, has affected about 1,048 people and killed an estimated 632 people.

Ebola is both rare and very deadly. Since the first outbreak in 1976, Ebola viruses have infected thousands of people and killed about one-third of them. Symptoms can come very quickly and kills fast.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation in Geneva confirmed Nigeria had "one suspected case" and samples had been sent to a WHO lab for testing.

The special adviser on public health to the Lagos State Government, Yewande Adeshina, told a news conference that Sawyer had collapsed on arrival at Lagos airport from Liberia on Sunday.

He was rushed to hospital and put in an isolation ward.

She said, "The patient was admitted and detained on suspicion of possible EBV infection, while blood sample collection and testing was initiated and results are pending."

Sawyer's death comes shortly after reports from Sierra Leone that the head doctor fighting the tropical virus has caught the disease. 39-year-old Sheik Umar Khan, has been hailed as a national hero by Liberia's health minister.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has tracked down all the passengers that travelled with the victim in an unnamed Lagos Hospital and are being investigated.

The government has also placed on red alert all ports of entry into Nigeria including Airports, seaports and land boarders following the discovery of the Virus.

The Minster of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, stated this during a joint press briefing held on Friday evening in Abuja with the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, while confirming the death of a victim of Ebola Virus at a Hospital in Lagos.

He said, "All passengers that came in contact with the patient have been traced and are being investigated in line with the international health regulations of the World Health Organization and in keeping with international best practices."

PUNCH.
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