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 Ebola has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
since it was first diagnosed in the region in February, straining
their impoverished healthcare systems.
If confirmed, the case would be the first on record of one of the
world's deadliest diseases in Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and,
with 170 million people, its most populous country.
The special adviser on public health to the Lagos state government,
Yewande Adeshina, told a news conference the man, who is in his 40s,
arrived 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
(Ebola virus) infection, while blood sample collection and testing
was initiated," she said. The test results were pending, she said.
A spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva
confirmed one suspected case of Ebola in Nigeria and said samples
had been sent to a WHO lab for testing.
Adeshina said Lagos state authorities had requested the flight's
manifest to contact the other passengers. They would also trace the
man's travel route and had already distributed protective clothing
to health workers, she said.
Ben Neuman, a virologist and Ebola expert at Britain's University of
Reading, said it was important to note that Ebola is one of a number
of viruses that can cause haemorrhagic fever, and that others,
including Lassa fever virus and Dengue virus, could turn out to be
the diagnosis in this case.
"Some of these other, more common haemorrhagic fever viruses have
already been the cause of false alarms in the ongoing west African
Ebola outbreak," Neuman told Reuters in London, urging calm.
HEALTH WORKERS AT RISK
Nigeria has some of the continent's least adequate healthcare
infrastructure, despite access to billions of dollars of oil money
as Africa's biggest producer of crude.
The Ebola outbreak started in Guinea's remote southeast and has
since spread, aided by a lack of information about the disease and
affected communities' suspicion of emergency medical staff.
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A recent wave of infections among medical personnel is raising
questions about the preparedness of regional health structures.
Sierra Leone announced on Wednesday that Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor
leading the fight against Ebola in the country, had himself
contracted the disease following the deaths of several nurses at the
treatment center where he works.
Dozens of nurses at the center staged a sit-down strike this week,
calling for management of the government-run facility to be
transferred to medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
"If you have that number of health personnel being infected within a
relatively short period of time, there is definitely something wrong
with the system," Deputy Health Minister Abu Bakarr Fofanah said on
Thursday.
He said Khan was responding well to treatment, however.
There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, which causes diarrhoea,
vomiting and internal and external bleeding and can kill up to 90
percent of those infected, although the mortality rate of the
current outbreak is around 60 percent.
(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London and Umaru Fofana in
Freetown; Writing by Tim Cocks and Joe Bavier; Editing by Jeremy
Gaunt, Larry King and Sonya Hepinstall)
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