Nigeria health officials wait to screen passengers in Lagos. Photo: AP
Abuja, Nigeria: The doctor who treated a man who flew to Nigeria and died of Ebola now has contracted the disease, authorities said on Monday, presenting a dire challenge to Africa’s most populous nation as the regional toll for the outbreak grew to 887 dead.
As Nigerian health authorities rushed to quarantine others who had been exposed to the doctor, a special plane landed in Liberia to evacuate the second American missionary who fell ill with Ebola. Nancy Writebol, 59, is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday, where she will be treated at a special isolation ward.
The second confirmed case in Nigeria is a doctor who treated Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died July 25 days after arriving in Nigeria from Liberia, said Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.
A Nigerian health official wearing a protective suit waits to screen passengers at the arrivals hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo: AP
Three others who also treated Sawyer now show symptoms of Ebola and their test results are pending, he said. Authorities are trying to trace and quarantine others in Lagos, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest city of 21 million people.