Nigeria records 7th Ebola death

A patient of Ebola died in Nigeria on Wednesday, bringing the total number of fatalities from the disease to seven in the West African country, an official said.

Nigeria's Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu told reporters in Abuja that the number of death from the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country increased to seven, following the death of a female patient who was on admission in a hospital in Port Harcourt, capital of oil-rich Rivers State.

"The female patient was on admission in the same hospital with Iyke Enemuo, a doctor who recently died of Ebola in Port Harcourt, " the official said.

In another development, a patient was discharged from an isolation facility in Lagos on Tuesday, following full recovery from the disease, Chukwu noted. He said the latest discharge brings the total number of successfully treated patients of Ebola to eight in Africa's most populous country.

The official said, however, a total of 18 confirmed cases of Ebola have been recorded in the African country since the latest outbreak, while the total number of EVD patients currently under treatment is two.

"One [patient] is in the Lagos isolation ward and the other one in the isolation ward in Port Harcourt," he added.

Nigeria announced last week it was almost free from Ebola, but Chukwu said this would become reality after new cases in the southern part of the country had been carefully and successfully treated.

Nearly 2,000 people have so far died of Ebola since the latest outbreak in African countries.