The Nigerian city of Lagos yesterday shut down and quarantined a hospital where a man died of Ebola in the first recorded case of the highly infectious disease in Africa’s most populous country.

Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the Liberian finance ministry in his 40s, collapsed on arrival at Lagos airport on July 20 and was put in isolation at the First Consultants Hospital in Obalende, one of the most crowded parts of a city that is home to 21 million people. He died on Friday.

Liberia shuts borders to contain spread of the virus

“The private hospital was demobilised [evacuated] and the primary source of infection eliminated. The decontamination process in all the affected areas has commenced,” Lagos state health commissioner Jide Idris told a news conference. Some hospital staff who were in close contact with the victim have been isolated. The hospital will be shut for a week and all staff closely monitored, Idris added.

The authorities are monitoring a total of 59 people who were in contact with Sawyer, including airport contacts, the Lagos state health ministry said. But the airline he flew in with has yet to provide a passenger-list for the flights he used, it added.

Ebola has killed 672 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since it was first diagnosed in February.

It can kill up to 90 per cent of those who catch it, although the fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 per cent. Highly contagious, especially in the late stages, its symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding.

Derek Gatherer, a virologist at Britain’s University of Lancaster, said anyone on the plane near Sawyer could be in “pretty serious danger”, but added relatively wealthy Nigeria was better placed to tackle the outbreak than its poorer neighbours.

“Nigerians have deep pockets and they can do as much as any Western country could do if they have the motivation and organisation to get it done,” he said.

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