Breaking! Ebola officially moves to Port Harcourt.

Despite the denial by Rivers state health commissioner, Sampson Parker yesterday, new reports have confirmed that a man has died from the Ebola Virus Disease in Port Harcourt. At a press conference yesterday, Dr. Parker said that Ebola did not kill the victim, but fever and diarrhoea did. Dr. Parker also said that Rivers people should not panic. Continue

An official of the Rivers state Government has now confirmed that the patient did indeed die of the Ebola Virus Disease. 

The official, who asked not to be named because she was not authorized to speak with journalists, told Ynaija on the phone that, “Forget yesterday’s press conference, Ebola is in Port Harcourt, and someone has died. We are now scrambling to track everybody who was in contact with him.”

The patient, whose name is yet to be made public, was said to have returned from Lagos and tested positive to the virus while on admission at a Private hospital in D-line area of the state capital.

The patient – a diplomat is believed to be among those who met Mr. Sawyer on his arrival in Lagos. He then flew to Port Harcourt where he took ill.

He was treated at an unnamed hotel in the Rivers state capital.

The doctor’s hospital, Good Heart Hospital, as well as the hotel where he treated the diplomat, have been shut down.

This development is a set back to Nigeria’s effort to contain the deadly virus. Recall that on Tuesday, the Minister of Health had announced that Nigeria had succeeded in halting the spread of the virus in the country.