A nurse in Nigeria has died of Ebola after treating an American consultant killed by the virus there last month, the country's health minister said Wednesday. The nurse is the second health worker to die after treating Patrick Sawyer, who fell ill while flying to Nigeria from Liberia, one of the countries worst affected by the current outbreak. Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told The Associated Press there are five other confirmed ebola cases in the country.
He said the other patients are being treated in Lagos, the city where Sawyer disembarked. The cases in Lagos – a city of 21 million with many connections to other continents - has caused fresh alarm. Officials are working to track down anyone who came in contact with Sawyer on his journey, which included stopovers in Ghana and Togo. The current Ebola crisis is the worst in history, with more than 1,300 cases across Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria since March. Two American patients have been medically evacuated from West Africa to the U.S. for treatment.
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- Alexander Smith
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
