Lagos, Aug 6 (IANS): Eight suspected cases of Ebola virus have been reported in southwest Nigeria's Lagos state, an official said.
All eight came in contact with Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian who died of the disease last month, Jide Idris, Lagos's state commissioner of health, told a a news conference in Ikeja, the capital of Lagos, Tuesday.
According to Idris, six others, who came in contact with the Liberian, have been quarantined but have not shown signs of the disease, Xinhua reported.
He told reporters that the government has stepped up its efforts to trace all those who came in contact with the Liberian.
The second confirmed case of infection after Sawyer was a doctor at a Lagos private hospital. The doctor treated the Liberian after he fell ill at the Lagos Murtala Muhammed Airport on his way to attend a meeting in the southeastern city of Calabar.
Also, Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, had Monday confirmed that the doctor was down with the virus which has killed over 800 people in West African countries.
Ebola, which spreads through mucous and other body fluid or secretions such as stool, urine, saliva and semen of infected people, is believed to be very difficult to control.
Altogether 1,603 infections and 887 deaths have been recorded in the Ebola-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organisation said.