The first Nigerian citizen has contracted the Ebola virus that is spreading across West Africa, while two patients quarantined in the country have developed symptoms, health officials said Monday.
The infected patient is a doctor who treated Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian government consultant who died of Ebola last week in a Lagos hospital, said Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.
Last week, Nigeria quarantined two further people suspected of being infected with the virus and placed 70 others under surveillance.
Eight out of the 70 people under surveillance have now been also isolated, according to Chukwu, German Press Agency dpa reported.
On Saturday, the National Centre for Disease Control announced the two patients that had initially been isolated had tested negative.
The World Health Organization is warning of possibly “catastrophic” consequences from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, calling the outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and now Nigeria is the deadliest ever.
As of July 31, the WHO had recorded 1,323 confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in West Africa. Of these, 729 people have died.