Ebola: Widow of sixth Ebola victim infected with virus – Rivers govt

• Three suspects quarantined

By Ese Awhotu with agency report

Rivers state government yesterday said the widow of a doctor who died from Ebola in oil city of Port Harcourt has also tested positive for the virus.

The state health commissioner of health, Mr. Sampson Parker said test results showed the woman had the disease, which claimed the life of her husband, Ike Enemuo, on August 22.

Enemuo fell ill and died after treating an official from the ECOWAS regional bloc, who travelled to Port Harcourt after having contact with a Liberian man who brought the virus into Nigeria.

The doctor was the sixth to die from the virus in Nigeria and the first outside Lagos, raising fears about the spread of the haemmorhagic fever, just as it was thought to have been contained.

Sampson said three patients, another doctor, a pharmacist and a woman who had contact with Enemuo at the hospital where he died, currently placed under observation through its Contact Tracing Committee have been identified and quarantined as in-house patients at the Ebola Isolation Unit, Eduoha, in Emohua local government area of the state.

Enemuo’s widow was at an isolation unit in Lagos, he added.

Parker said early detection and treatment was vital, appealing for anyone who had contact with Enemuo, his clinic, the ECOWAS official or the hotel where he stayed to contact them immediately.