LAGOS – Nigeria has confirmed a fresh case of Ebola in a doctor whose husband died from the virus, adding to a growing list of healthcare workers in west Africa hit by the epidemic.
The woman’s husband was also a doctor who died in the city of Port Harcourt on August 22 after treating a patient that had contact with the Liberian man who brought the virus to Nigeria in late July.
She was in stable condition at an isolation unit in the financial capital, Lagos, said Sampson Parker, the health commissioner of Rivers State.
Nigeria’s medics have paid a heavy price in the outbreak: of the six people who have died from the disease in Africa’s most populous nation, two have been doctors and two others nurses. Another doctor and a pharmacist were put into isolation at a unit outside Port Harcourt, Mr Parker said.
“They have not been confirmed (as having Ebola) and we are awaiting the result of investigation,” he told a news conference.
The World Health Organization has voiced concern about the “unprecedented” number of healthcare workers hit by the Ebola outbreak. About 120 health workers have died and over 240 others infected so far.
