Ebola: S’African woman quarantined in Lagos tests negative

An unidentified South African woman, who was brought under close watch in Lagos late on Thursday after being quarantined for the deadly Ebola virus, has tested negative to the disease.

The woman flew into Lagos from Morocco and was held at a treatment centre till Friday morning for tests after she told officials she was experiencing symptoms similar to the disease’s following working spells in Guinea and Sierra Leone, two of the worst hit areas.



Confirming the incident, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Florida International University College of Medicine, United States, Dr. Aileen Marty, said the South African was treated for amoebic dysentery, which produced the symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting she displayed on arrival at the Lagos airport.

“She is negative (for Ebola),” declared Marty, who has been assisting with containing the disease in Lagos since the first reported case earlier in July.

While also confirming the case of the South African in Lagos yesterday, Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu said the disease had been adequately contained and therefore there should be no panic over schools’ September 22, 2014 resumption date.

Chukwu was speaking in Lagos on Friday at the requiem mass organised in honour of Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, who died after treating the Liberian-American who brought the virus to Nigeria, Patrick Sawyer.

He said, “Our children can go back to school even today. But if they cannot go back to school today, it is certainly not because of the Ebola virus because the disease has been effectively contained in Nigeria already.

“However, we all still have a big role to play at ensuring this danger is flushed out of our land. Adadevoh made a priceless sacrifice; her death must not be in vain. The government has taken due note of her sacrifice and at the appropriate time this country would honour her,” he said.

According to WHO, Ebola has killed more than 2,400 people so far across the affected West African countries with that figure likely to rise to 20, 000 over the next six months if adequate and strategic measures are not adopted to fight the spread of the disease.