AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A United Nations peacekeeper who contracted Ebola in Liberia arrived in the Netherlands on Saturday for treatment, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The man, a Nigerian who was not identified, was to be treated at the UMC Hospital in the central Dutch city of Utrecht, after arriving on a medical flight to the capital, Amsterdam.
The UMC has set up a special Ebola ward and the man will be treated in an isolated wing, the statement said.
Since the worst outbreak of Ebola on record was detected in March, it has infected some 17,256 people and killed 6,113 in the three worst-affected countries – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – according to the World Health Organization.
Liberia – the country with the highest number of cases – has succeeded in lowering infection rates, and the virus is now spreading fastest in Sierra Leone. The former British colony recorded 537 new cases in the week to Nov. 30.
(Reporting By Anthony Deutsch; editing by Susan Thomas)