Lagos Health Ministry tests Liberian for Ebola virus

The Lagos State Ministry of Health, on Thursday, said it is testing a Liberian man, in his 40s, for the deadly Ebola virus.

The special adviser on public health to the Lagos state government, Yewande Adeshina, told a news conference the man had arrived in Lagos from Liberia on Sunday.

“The patient was admitted and detained on suspicion of possible EBV (Ebola) infection, while blood sample collection and testing was initiated,” she said in her statement.

Samples had been sent to a World Health Organisation (WHO) laboratory in Dakar, she said, adding that “results are pending.”

The virus  has killed 632 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak began in February, straining a string of weak health systems despite international help.

This would be the first recorded case of one of the world’s deadliest diseases in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and most populous nation, with 170 million people and some of Africa’s least adequate health infrastructure.

It would be recalled that Sheik Umar Khan, a Sierra Leone doctor leading the fight to curb the dreaded disease, was recently infected by the virus.

39-year-old Sheik Umar Khan, a virologist credited with treating more than 100 Ebola victims, had been transferred to a treatment ward run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.