"primary contact" with a man who died of Ebola in Lagos last week as
west Africa battled to tame the deadliest ever outbreak of the virus.
Nigeria's Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said "staff or persons who
took care of him before the diagnosis" were in quarantine and 69 have
been placed under medical surveillance.
Patrick Sawyer, a 40-year-old Liberian, died under quarantine in a
private hospital in Lagos on Friday, sparking fears the deadly virus
could spread to Africa's most populous nation.
"We are tracking all those with primary contact with a view to
deciding those who must be quarantined and those who will just remain
under surveillance," Chukwu said.
"As at today 69 are under surveillance and two quarantined," he told
reporters in Abuja, adding that "they will remain under the
surveillance until a period of three weeks at least".
West Africa's Ebola-hit nations on Thursday imposed stringent new
rules and agreed to launch a $100 million response plan to stop the
spread of Ebola, which has so far killed nearly 730 people in the
region.
Sierra Leone joined Liberia in launching far-reaching measures to
contain the virus, including quarantining Ebola-striken areas and
cancelling foreign trips by ministers.
Chukwu said that Nigeria has not closed its borders yet, but will
apply the measure if "it becomes necessary".
The Lagos hospital where the Ebola victim died said Thursday in a
statement that the health institution has been temporarily shut down
while the body had been burt according to WHO guidelines.
"In keeping with WHO guidelines, the hospital is shut down briefly as
full decontamination exercise is currently in progress," it said.
Spread by close contact with an infected person through bodily fluids
such as sweat, blood and tissue, Ebola can fell victims within days,
causing severe fever and muscle pain, vomiting and diarrhoea -- and in
some cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding.
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