A Liberian man has been taken to hospital in Nigeria after he developed sysmptoms of the deadly disease Ebola, which has killed hundreds in West Africa in the biggest recorded outbreak.
Nigerian officials said on Thursday that the man was being tested in Lagos, and it was not clear if he was infected with the disease, which has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak began in February.
If confirmed, the case would be the first on record in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous state with a population of 170 million.
The 40-year-old Monrovia man arrived in Lagos on Sunday and was taken to hospital on Tuesday suffering from severe vomiting and diarrhoea, said Yewande Adesina, the special adviser on health for the Lagos state government.
“Results are still pending. Presently the patient’s condition is stable and he is in recovery… The diarrhoea and vomiting have stopped. He is still under isolation.”
A third laboratory outside Nigeria must also test the samples before a final determination on Ebola can be reached, Adesina said.
The patient travelled from the Liberian of Monrovia to Lagos via Togo’s capital Lome.
The WHO has recorded more than 900 cases of Ebola in the epidemic that has raged across West Africa in recent months. Liberia has recorded 172 cases of the disease, including 105 deaths.
Source: Aljazeera