Doctor dies of Ebola in Port Harcourt

Dan Nwomeh, a Ministry of Health spokesman, said Thursday that a doctor in Port Harcourt has died from Ebola fever.

The doctor was infected he treated a primary contact of Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who brought the dreaded disease to Nigeria.

His death brings the number of Ebola fatalities in Nigeria to 6.

The total number of recorded cases had risen by two to 15, the other one being the wife of the doctor who is showing Ebola symptoms and whose test results are awaited.

Nwomeh said 70 contacts of the doctor were now under surveillance in Port Harcourt.

The news came two days after Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said

Nigeria’s in-bound air passenger traffic sustained on Ebola containment

Nigeria’s timely containment of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) which has attracted huge commendation from the international community, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) is paying off, as air passenger traffic into and also out of the country’s airports has been sustained, despite the outbreak of the disease in July.

The disease has however crippled air travel business in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where a total of about 1,400 deaths have been recorded since the recent outbreak, leading to the cancellation of as much as 216 of the 590 monthly international flights scheduled to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Official Airline Guide (OAG), an airline data provider says.

However, with only five deaths recorded in Nigeria, including the late Patrick Sawyer (the index case) who imported the deadly disease into the country, analysts observe that

Ebola virus: Hand sanitisers turn gold

Since the death of the Nigerian nurse, who was among those who attended to the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who brought Ebola virus to Nigeria from Liberia, panic-stricken Nigerians have resorted to ways of preventing the killer virus.

One of these, among others, is the use of hand sanitisers after health authorities advised that Nigerians should maintain hygienic lifestyle, including washing of hands frequently, to prevent the disease. Following this, the prices of hand sanitisers have gone up astronomically as people are in mad rush for the products.

There are 10 confirmed cases of Ebola disease in Nigeria while about 177 people who may have come into contact with the virus are being monitored or isolated in Lagos, health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, said on Monday.

The death toll from the highly contagious Ebola disease has