Sunday, September 7, 2014

EBOLA: Doctor who Died Infected Others Before his Death

An ill doctor in southern Nigeria exposed dozens of people to the Ebola virus by continuing to treat patients before his death, the World Health Organization said Wednesday as it announced the toll across West Africa had surged above 1,900 fatalities.
Officials in Nigeria had believed that Ebola was largely contained within Africa’s most populous country after a sick traveler from Liberia brought the disease to Lagos. However, a man who had had contact with the ill visitor later traveled to the oil hub of Port Harcourt, where he triggered a second cluster of cases.

A Port Harcourt doctor and another patient there are now dead, and the doctor’s widow and sister are ill with Ebola. About 60 other people are under surveillance after having ‘‘high-risk’’ or ‘‘very high-risk’’ contact with the infected doctor, WHO said. About 140 others are also being monitored.
‘‘Given these multiple high-risk exposure opportunities, the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Port Harcourt has the potential to grow larger and spread faster than the one in Lagos,’’ WHO warned.
Nigeria’s health minister has said there is no reason for people in Port Harcourt to panic.
The UN health agency, though, said it feared civil unrest and public fear of Ebola could further the crisis, saying ‘‘military escorts are needed for movements into the isolation and treatment center.’’
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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