Setback! Doctor dies of Ebola virus in Port Harcourt

Nigeria has recorded its 6th death from Ebola virus, but this time in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu said the doctor died on August 22 after treating a patient who had contact with Late Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who brought the virus to the country. He said laboratory analysis just confirmed that the doctor actually died of Ebola.

He said in Abuja today: “Following the report of this 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 (Ebola Virus Disease),”

According to Chukwu, the patient who had contact with Sawyer managed to escape to Port Harcourt in the last week of July, where he saw the doctor after falling sick.

 “After four days, following a manhunt for him, he returned to Lagos by which time he was found to be without symptoms,” Chukwu told reporters.

“This case would have been of no further interest since he had completed the 21 days of surveillance without any other issue but for the fact that the doctor who treated him died last Friday.”

Following the doctor’s death, Chukwu said that about 70 contacts had now been “traced, registered and placed under surveillance”.

He added that the doctor’s widow has shown symptoms of the virus and has been placed in isolation pending laboratory results.

On Wednesday, the minister had said that the virus was contained because there were no cases outside Lagos, but had however warned against complacency.

Port Harcourt is more than 435 kilometres away from Lagos and this patient travelled that far.

So, how far has the spread gone?