- Title: NIGERIA: Nigeria hospital where first Ebola victim died remains shut
- Date: 7th August 2014
- Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (AUGUST 7, 2014) (REUTERS) PEOPLE ON ROAD NEAR HOSPITAL BUILDING CLOSE OF HOSPITAL BUILDING VARIOUS OF LOCKED GATE WITH A BIKE PARKED IN FRONT CARS MOVING PAST HOSPITAL / PEOPLE WALKING WOMAN SELLING ITEMS FROM A WHEEL BARROW VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SELLING FRUIT (SOUNDBITES) (English) LAGOS RESIDENT, OLALIYI KUNLE, SAYING: "The closed the hospital, understand me, that they cannot continue hosting people in that hospital, there is Ebola, they cannot even work because the hospital was shut down and for this everyone was shocked, but later on the radio on the television, they educated us that whatever we want to do we must be very hygienic, we need to wash our hands and do some proper cleaning, so that's.and there is no any problem since them. Since then everything is going fine." VARIOUS OF MAN IN FRONT OF HIS SHOP SIGN ABOVE SHOP (SOUNDBITE) (English) BUSINESS MAN, KEHINDE HASSAN, SAYING: "I was so bad, I felt dejected because its about life, because its an epidemic, once an epidemic occurs somewhere, it doesn't know races or colour." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING ON THE STREET
- Embargoed: 22nd August 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: Health,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA1SSI9MMX5I6ZKL2CY8H1JCZNO
- Story Text: The First Consultants Hospital in the Nigerian city of Lagos remained shut down and quarantined on Thursday (August 7), after it became the scene of the first recorded death from the Ebola virus in Africa's most populous country.
Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the Liberian finance ministry aged in his 40s, collapsed on arrival at Lagos airport on July 20. He was put in isolation at the First Consultants Hospital in Obalende, one of the most crowded parts of a city that is home to 21 million people, and died on July 25.
On Wednesday (August 6), a Nigerian nurse infected with the Ebola virus died, the second confirmed fatality from the disease in the leading oil producing country.
The nurse, the first native Nigerian to die from the disease, had been involved in the treatment of Sawyer, a Liberia and U.S. citizen.
The First Consultants Hospital was shut down on July 28, and at least five other people have been isolated with symptoms, raising fears of an outbreak in Africa's largest metropolis.
Business outside the hospital, however, was continuing as normal, but with the public more aware about the risk of Ebola.
Olaliyi Kunle lives in the area and said he is shocked about the Ebola outbreak, but has learnt to keep a high level of hygiene.
"The closed the hospital, understand me, that they cannot continue hosting people in that hospital, there is Ebola, they cannot even work because the hospital was shut down and for this everyone was shocked, but later on the radio on the television, they educated us that whatever we want to do we must be very hygienic, we need to wash our hands and do some proper cleaning, so that's.and there is no any problem since them. Since then everything is going fine," he says.
Kehinde Hassan, who sells shoes and bags just opposite the hospital, said that virus can infect anyone.
"I was so bad, I felt dejected because its about life, because its an epidemic, once an epidemic occurs somewhere, it doesn't know races or colour," he said.
The Ebola outbreak was detected in March in the remote forest regions of Guinea, where the death toll is rising.
In neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia, where the outbreak is now spreading fastest, authorities deployed troops to quarantine the border areas where 70 percent of cases have been detected.
The Lagos state minister of health on Wednesday (August 06) urged more Nigerians to volunteer to help contain the Ebola victims and in tracing secondary contacts, with a promise of good protective clothing and life insurance.
Among the most deadly diseases, Ebola kills up to 90 percent of those infected, causing internal and external bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting in its final stages. Discovered in Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976, near the Ebola river, it is believed to have been carried to the west of the continent by fruit bats, which are eaten as a delicacy in the region. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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