The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu on Thursday, August 28 confirmed the death of a doctor due to the Ebola Virus Disease and two other cases of persons with the disease in Port Harcourt, River State.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja, the Minister said the doctor died on Friday, August 22 after treating a diplomat who had direct contact with the index case, Patrick Sawyer. He said laboratory analysis on his corpse showed he died from Ebola.
The doctor becomes the sixth fatality in Nigeria since the outbreak of the deadly disease.
“Following the report of his death by the doctor’s widow the next day, the case had been thoroughly investigated and laboratory analysis showed that this doctor died from EVD,” Chukwu said.
The doctor, who is yet to be named is said to have secretly treated the diplomat. Interestingly, the diplomat the doctor treated is still alive. And his wife has also taken ill and has been quarantined in Port Harcourt.
The diplomat, who was part of the team who met with Patrick Sawyer in Lagos, flew to Port Harcourt, Rivers State for treatment evading Nigerian federal government surveillance for the disease. The late doctor then took him to a hotel for treatment.
As a result of this, 70 people have been quarantined. The doctor’s hospital, Good Heart Hospital in Rivers State, has also been shut down. The unnamed hotel where he secretly treated the diplomat has also been shut down.
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