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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Alarming Ebola cases discovered in Nigeria

Outbreak continues to spread in Liberia

A man working for a humanitarian group throws water in small bags to West Point residents behind the fence of a holding area, as they wait for food from the Liberian government to be handed out Friday. (Associated Press)
Bashir Adigun And Jonathan Paye-Layleh Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria – Two alarming new cases of Ebola have emerged in Nigeria, widening the circle of people sickened beyond the immediate group of caregivers who treated a dying airline passenger in one of Africa’s largest cities.

The outbreak also continues to spread elsewhere in West Africa, with 142 more cases recorded, bringing the new total to 2,615 with 1,427 deaths, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Most of the new cases are in Liberia, where the government was delivering donated rice to a slum where 50,000 people have been sealed off from the rest of the capital in an attempt to contain the outbreak.

New treatment centers in Liberia are being overwhelmed by patients that were not previously identified. One center with 20 beds opened its doors to 70 possibly infected people, likely coming from “shadow-zones” where people fearing authorities won’t let doctors enter, the U.N. health agency said.

“This phenomenon strongly suggests the existence of an invisible caseload of patients who are not being detected by the surveillance system,” the agency said. This has “never before been seen in an Ebola outbreak.”

The two new cases in Nigeria were infected by their spouses, both medical workers who had direct contact with Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, who flew into Nigeria from Liberia and Togo and infected 11 others before he died in July. The male and female caregivers also then died of Ebola, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said Friday.

In all, 213 people are now under surveillance in Nigeria, including six people, all “secondary contacts” like the caregivers’ spouses, being monitored in the state of Enugu, more than 310 miles east of Lagos.

A mobile laboratory capable of diagnosing the disease has been moved there, Chukwu said.

The damage has been far greater in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, each dealing with hundreds of cases. Liberia has been hit hardest, recording 1,082 cases and 624 deaths.

In Liberia, a teenage boy died after being shot by security forces in West Point, a slum that was blockaded this week to stop the spread of Ebola, a Liberia government spokesman said Friday. Shakie Kamara was hurt in a clash with police and soldiers who sealed off their peninsula from the rest of Monrovia.

The government began distributing rice, some of it donated by the World Food Program, to alleviate food shortages a day after cordoning off the slum, said Information Minister Lewis Brown.