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July 28, 2014

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Air-travel panic after Ebola death in Nigeria

NIGERIAN health authorities are racing to stop the spread of Ebola after a man sick with one of the world’s deadliest diseases brought it by plane to Lagos, Africa’s largest city with 21 million people.

The fact that the traveler from Liberia could board an international flight also raised new fears that other passengers could take the disease beyond Africa due to weak inspection of passengers and the fact Ebola’s symptoms are similar to other diseases.

Officials in Togo, where the sick man’s flight had a stopover, also went on high alert after learning that Ebola could possibly have spread to a fifth country.

Screening people as they enter the country may help slow the spread of the disease, but it is no guarantee Ebola won’t travel by airplane, according to Dr Lance Plyler, who heads Ebola medical efforts in Liberia for aid organization Samaritan’s Purse. “Unfortunately the initial signs of Ebola imitate other diseases, like malaria or typhoid,” he said.

Ebola already had caused some 672 deaths across a wide swath of West Africa before the Nigeria case was announced. It is the deadliest outbreak on record for Ebola, and now it threatens Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. An outbreak in Lagos, Africa’s megacity where many live in cramped conditions, could be a major disaster.

“Lagos is completely different from other cities because we’re talking about millions of people,” said Plan International’s Disaster Response and Preparedness Head, Dr Unni Krishnan.

Nigerian newspapers describe the effort as a “scramble” to contain the threat after the Liberian arrived in Lagos and then died on Friday.

Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the Liberian Ministry of Finance arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday and was immediately detained by health authorities suspecting he might have Ebola, Plyler said.

On his way to Lagos, Sawyer’s plane also stopped in Lome, Togo, according to the World Health Organization.

Authorities announced on Friday that blood tests from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital confirmed Sawyer died of Ebola earlier that day.

Nearly 50 other passengers on the flight are being monitored for signs of Ebola but are not being kept in isolation, a Ministry of Health employee said.

Sawyer’s sister also died of Ebola in Liberia, according to officials, but he claimed to have had no contact with her. Ebola is highly contagious and kills more than 70 percent of people infected.




 

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