ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian health
authorities raced to stop the spread of
Ebola on Saturday after a man sick with
one of the world's deadliest diseases
brought it by plane to Lagos, Africa's
largest city with 21 million people.

The fact that the traveler from Liberia
could board an international flight also
raised new fears that other passengers
could take the disease beyond Africa
due to weak inspection of passengers
and the fact Ebola's symptoms are
similar to other diseases.

Officials in the country of Togo, where
the sick man's flight had a stopover, also
went on high alert after learning that
Ebola could possibly have spread to a
fifth country.

Screening people as they enter the
country may help slow the spread of the
disease, but it is no guarantee Ebola
won't travel by airplane, according to
Dr. Lance Plyler, who heads Ebola
medical efforts in Liberia for aid
organization Samaritan's Purse.

"Unfortunately the initial signs of Ebola
imitate other diseases, like malaria or
typhoid," he said.

Ebola already had caused some 672
deaths across a wide swath of West
Africa before the Nigeria case was
announced. It is the deadliest outbreak
on record for Ebola, and now it
threatens Nigeria, Africa's most
populous nation.

"Lagos is completely different from
other cities because we're talking about
millions of people," said Plan International's Disaster Response and
Preparedness Head, Dr. Unni Krishnan.
Nigerian newspapers describe the effort
as a "scramble" to contain the threat
after the Liberian arrived in Lagos and
then died Friday.

International airports in Nigeria are
screening passengers arriving from
foreign countries for symptoms of Ebola,
according to Yakubu Dati, the
spokesman for Federal Aviation
Authority of Nigeria.

Health officials are also working with
ports and land borders, he said. "They
are giving out information in terms of
enlightenment, what to do, what to look
out for."

And Nigerian airports are setting up
holding rooms to ready in case another
potential Ebola victim lands in Nigeria.
Airports in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone, the three other West African
countries affected by the current Ebola
outbreak, have implemented some
preventive measures, according to
officials in those countries. But none of
the safeguards are foolproof, say health
experts.

Doctors say health screens could be
effective, but Ebola has a variable
incubation period of between two and
21 days and cannot be diagnosed on the
spot.

Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the
Liberian Ministry of Finance arrived in
Nigeria on Tuesday and was immediately
detained by health authorities suspecting
he might have Ebola, Plyler said.

On his way to Lagos, Sawyer's plane also
stopped in Lome, Togo, according to the
World Health Organization.

Authorities announced Friday that blood
tests from the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital confirmed Sawyer died of Ebola
earlier that day.

Sawyer reportedly did not show Ebola
symptoms when he boarded the plane,
Plyler said, but by the time he arrived in
Nigeria he was vomiting and had diarrhea.

There has not been another recently recorded case of Ebola spreading through air travel, he added. Nearly 50 other passengers on the flight are being monitored for signs of Ebola are not being kept in isolation, said an employee at Nigeria's Ministry of Health, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak
to the press.

Sawyer's sister also died of Ebola in
Liberia, according to Liberian officials,
but he claimed to have had no contact
with her. Ebola is highly contagious and
kills more than 70 percent of people
infected. An outbreak in Lagos, Africa's megacity where many live in cramped conditions, could be an unprecedented disaster in what is already the largest Ebola
outbreak on record.

International's Disaster Response and
Preparedness Head, Dr. Unni Krishnan.
Ebola is passed by touching bodily fluids
of patients even after they die, he said.
Traditional burials that include rubbing
the bodies of the dead contribute to the
spread of the disease, Krishnan added.

There is no "magic bullet" cure for
Ebola, but early detection and treatment
of fluids and nutrition can be effective,
said Plyler in Liberia. Quickly isolating
patients who show symptoms is also
crucial in slowing the spread of the
disease.

West African hospital systems have weak
and "often paralyzed" health care
systems, he added, and are not usually
equipped to handle Ebola outbreaks.
International aid organizations like his
and Doctors Without Borders have
stepped in, but they also lack enough
funding and manpower. "We need more
humanitarian workers," he said. "We
need resources."

http://news.msn.com/science-technology/nigeria-death-shows-ebola-can-spread-by-air-travel

Blood of Jesus

Hmmm ...I wonder which airline was involved bringing jn the victim very possible nlw that the person sitting next to him ..left and right, front and back, hostesses, people standing in line with him during pre-boarding, during immigration and custom clearance, the custom and immigration officials, the health officials etc MUST be identified immediately

Knowing Naija fully well ...no one is thinking towards this direction ....sad but true.