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A doctor in Nigeria’s city of Port Harcourt, who secretly treated a diplomat who had contact with the first case of the disease in Nigeria, has died of Ebola.
This is the country’s first Ebola death outside Lagos and the sixth fatality in Nigeria.
Health Ministry spokesman, Dan Nwomeh, confirmed that the doctor had treated a primary contact of Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who brought Ebola to Lagos.
Health Minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, also said that the doctor had died on August 22, but the results of the tests have only just been made public.
Controversy, however, trail the number of people under surveillance. The Health Minister said that 70 people are under surveillance in the city, while his wife has been put under quarantine.
However, the Rivers State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Samson Parker, said that 100 contact persons are under surveillance and that a 24-hour surveillance has been declared on all contacts, including patients of the late Dr Iyke Enemoah.
The diplomat, who has since recovered, was part of the team who met with Patrick Sawyer in Lagos.
The World Health Organization says the Ebola outbreak, which has killed 1,427 people, is the largest ever Ebola epidemic and has infected an estimated 2,615 people.
Liberia has been hardest-hit of the affected countries, with 624 deaths and 1,082 cases since the start of the year.
The Director of the Centers for Disease Control, Tom Frieden, has said that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is going to get worse before it gets better.
The top US public health official said that the epidemic would need an “unprecedented” response to bring it under control.
Health ministers from across West Africa are due to meet in Ghana on Thursday to discuss the growing crisis.
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