London : Nigeria Thursday confirmed its first Ebola death outside Lagos, a doctor in the oil hub of Port Harcourt, BBC reported.
He becomes the sixth fatality in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.
The doctor had treated a patient, who later recovered and had earlier met Patrick Sawyer, the man who took Ebola from Liberia to Nigeria.
West Africa’s health ministers are meeting later Thursday to discuss how to tackle the world’s most deadly Ebola outbreak.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the outbreak has already killed 1,427 people.
The WHO has said that it 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 this year.
The virus is not airborne and is spread when humans come into contact with bodily fluids such as sweat and blood of those infected with the virus.
Till date, there is no vaccine or cure for the Ebola virus outbreak, the BBC report said.
Ebola epidemic to get worse: health official
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa will get worse before it gets better, said a top public health official, the BBC reported Thursday.
Tom Frieden, director of the US-based Centres for Disease Control, said the epidemic would need an “unprecedented” response to bring it under control.
Health ministers from the Economic Community of West African States will meet in Ghana’s capital Accra Thursday to discuss the region’s response to the crisis. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the outbreak has already killed 1,427 people.
The WHO has said that it 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 this year.
The virus is not airborne and is spread when humans come into contact with bodily fluids such as sweat and blood of those infected with virus.
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Outbreak could infect 20,000
The deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa could infect more than 20,000 people before it is brought under control, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned. The dire prediction came as more than 3,000 people had been registered as being infected with the virus. However the WHO said the true figure could be much higher. More than 1,500 people have already died from the virus, with most of the deaths occurring in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
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