LAGOS
Nigeria has recorded another death from the festering Ebola outbreak, the third in Africa's most populous country.
The latest casualty has been identified as Jatto Abdulqudir, a 36-year-old employee of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
"The management of the Commission wishes to commiserate with Mr Abdulqudir's family and colleagues and prays for the repose of his soul," ECOWAS said in a statement.
Abdulqudir had been in contact with Patrick Sawyer, an infected Liberian who had come to the country to attend an ECOWAS meeting in Calabar, in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta.
Sawyer came down with symptoms of the Ebola virus and was admitted at a hospital in the commercial city of Lagos, where he later died.
At least 139 people are still being watched across Nigeria after they were found to have had varied levels of contact with Sawyer.
Abdulqudir was until his death among the eight people being quarantined in the country's commercial city of Lagos.
A Nigerian nurse who had contracted the virus while treating Sawyer has since died.
Authorities say virus remains restricted to Lagos, though there is a nationwide fear of its spread.
Nigeria has declared a national emergency to tackle the outbreak, the first time it is dealing with the Ebola since its discovery in 1976.
Ebola, a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure, has claimed more than 1000 lives across West African states including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.
The tropical fever, which first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.
It also reportedly spreads through contact with the body fluids of infected persons or of those who have died of the disease.
By Rafiu Ajakaye
www.aa.com.tr/en
