A Sierra Leone woman who fled hospital after testing positive for the
Ebola virus has died after turning herself in, health officials have
told theBBC.
Her family had forcibly removed her from a public hospital on Thursday.
Saudatu Koroma's is the first case of Ebola to be confirmed in the
country's capital Freetown, where there are no facilities to treat the
virus.
Since February, more than 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa
- the world's deadliest outbreak to date.
Nigeria has put all its entry points on red alert after confirming the
death there of a Liberian man who was carrying the highly contagious
virus.
The man died after arriving at Lagos airport on Tuesday, in the first
Ebola case in Africa's most populous country.
The outbreak began in southern Guinea and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Reports on Saturday said that a prominent Liberian doctor, Samuel
Brisbane, had died after a three-week battle with the virus.
And later it emerged that a US doctor working with Ebola patients,
Kent Brantly, was being treated for the virus in a hospital in the
capital Monrovia.
The virus, which kills up to 90 per cent of those infected, spreads
through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.
Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive treatment early.
Koroma was the first registered Ebola case in the capital Freetown.
Both she and her parents -who are suspected of having the virus - had
been taken to Ebola treatment centres in the east of the country,
health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis told theBBC.
The woman had been one of dozens of people who tested positive but
were unaccounted for, the BBC's Umaru Fofana reports from the capital,
Freetown.
Her case highlights Sierra Leone's lack of preparedness in responding
to the outbreak, our correspondent says, with no laboratory or
treatment centre in Freetown.
The Ebola cases in Sierra Leone are centred in the country's eastern
districts of Kenema and Kailahun, just over the border from the
Guekedou region of Guinea where the outbreak started.
Police said thousands of people joined a street protest in Kenema on
Friday over the government's handling of the outbreak.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the doctor leading Sierra
Leone's fight against Ebola was being treated for the virus.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization said that 219 people had
died of Ebola in Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said that
all other passengers on board the flight with the infected man had
been traced and were being monitored.
The patient had "avoided contact with the general public" between the
airport and the hospital, he said.
"All ports of entry to Nigeria, including airports, sea ports and land
borders have been placed on red alert," he added.
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