Nigerian authorities on Monday confirmed a second case
of Ebola in Africa's most populous country, an alarming setback
as officials across the region battle to stop the spread of a
disease that has killed more than 700 people in four countries.
Meanwhile, health authorities in Liberia ordered that all those
who die from Ebola be cremated after communities opposed
having the bodies buried nearby. Over the weekend, military
police were called in after people tried to block health authorities
in the West African nation from burying 22 bodies on the
outskirts of the capital.
In Nigeria, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said Monday the
confirmed second case is a doctor who had helped treat Patrick
Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died July 25 days after
arriving in Nigeria from Liberia.
Test samples are pending for three other people who also treated
Sawyer and now have shown symptoms of Ebola, he said.
Authorities are trying to trace and quarantine others.
"Hopefully by the end of today we should have the results of their
own test," Chukwu said.
The emergence of a second case raises serious concerns about
the infection control practices in Nigeria, and also raises the
specter that more cases could emerge. It can take up to 21 days
after exposure to the virus for symptoms to appear. They include
fever, sore throat, muscle pains and headaches. Often nausea,
vomiting and diarrhea follow, along with severe internal and
external bleeding in advanced stages of the disease.
"This fits exactly with the pattern that we've seen in the past.
Either someone gets sick and infects their relatives, or goes to a
hospital and health workers get sick," said Gregory Hartl, World
Health Organization spokesman in Geneva. "It's extremely
unfortunate but it's not unexpected. This was a sick man getting
off a plane and unfortunately, no one knew he had Ebola."
Doctors and other health workers on the front lines of the Ebola
crisis have been among the most vulnerable to infection as they
are in direct physical contact with patients. The disease is not
airborne, and only transmitted through contact with bodily fluids
such as saliva, blood, vomit, sweat or feces.
Sawyer, who was traveling to Nigeria on business, became ill
while aboard a flight and Nigerian authorities immediately took
him into isolation upon arrival in Lagos. They did not quarantine
his fellow passengers, and have insisted that the risk of
additional cases was minimal.
Nigerian authorities said a total of 70 people are under
surveillance and that they hoped to have eight people in
quarantine by the end of Monday in an isolation ward in Lagos.
The emergence there is particularly worrisome because Lagos is
the largest city in Africa with some 21 million people.
Health officials rely on "contact tracing" — locating anyone who
may have been exposed, and then anyone who may have come
into contact with that person.
Ben Neuman, a virologist and Ebola expert at Britain's University
of Reading, said that could prove difficult at this stage.
"Contact tracing is essential but it's very hard to get enough
people to do that," he said. "For the average case, you want to
look back and catch the 20-30 people they had closest contact
with and that takes a lot of effort and legwork ... The most
important thing now is to do the contact tracing and quarantine
any contacts who may be symptomatic."
of Ebola in Africa's most populous country, an alarming setback
as officials across the region battle to stop the spread of a
disease that has killed more than 700 people in four countries.
Meanwhile, health authorities in Liberia ordered that all those
who die from Ebola be cremated after communities opposed
having the bodies buried nearby. Over the weekend, military
police were called in after people tried to block health authorities
in the West African nation from burying 22 bodies on the
outskirts of the capital.
In Nigeria, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said Monday the
confirmed second case is a doctor who had helped treat Patrick
Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died July 25 days after
arriving in Nigeria from Liberia.
Test samples are pending for three other people who also treated
Sawyer and now have shown symptoms of Ebola, he said.
Authorities are trying to trace and quarantine others.
"Hopefully by the end of today we should have the results of their
own test," Chukwu said.
The emergence of a second case raises serious concerns about
the infection control practices in Nigeria, and also raises the
specter that more cases could emerge. It can take up to 21 days
after exposure to the virus for symptoms to appear. They include
fever, sore throat, muscle pains and headaches. Often nausea,
vomiting and diarrhea follow, along with severe internal and
external bleeding in advanced stages of the disease.
"This fits exactly with the pattern that we've seen in the past.
Either someone gets sick and infects their relatives, or goes to a
hospital and health workers get sick," said Gregory Hartl, World
Health Organization spokesman in Geneva. "It's extremely
unfortunate but it's not unexpected. This was a sick man getting
off a plane and unfortunately, no one knew he had Ebola."
Doctors and other health workers on the front lines of the Ebola
crisis have been among the most vulnerable to infection as they
are in direct physical contact with patients. The disease is not
airborne, and only transmitted through contact with bodily fluids
such as saliva, blood, vomit, sweat or feces.
Sawyer, who was traveling to Nigeria on business, became ill
while aboard a flight and Nigerian authorities immediately took
him into isolation upon arrival in Lagos. They did not quarantine
his fellow passengers, and have insisted that the risk of
additional cases was minimal.
Nigerian authorities said a total of 70 people are under
surveillance and that they hoped to have eight people in
quarantine by the end of Monday in an isolation ward in Lagos.
The emergence there is particularly worrisome because Lagos is
the largest city in Africa with some 21 million people.
Health officials rely on "contact tracing" — locating anyone who
may have been exposed, and then anyone who may have come
into contact with that person.
Ben Neuman, a virologist and Ebola expert at Britain's University
of Reading, said that could prove difficult at this stage.
"Contact tracing is essential but it's very hard to get enough
people to do that," he said. "For the average case, you want to
look back and catch the 20-30 people they had closest contact
with and that takes a lot of effort and legwork ... The most
important thing now is to do the contact tracing and quarantine
any contacts who may be symptomatic."
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