Two suspected Ebola patients flee hospital in Saudi Arabia – Nigerian doctor, released and said recovered from Ebola drops dead – virus may have mysterious latent triggers

Ebola

Two men, displaying suspected symptoms of the Ebola virus, ran away from a rural health center located in the Madinah province of Saudi Arabia on Sunday, a Saudi daily reported. “The two African nationals, who did not have residency permits or any other documentation, came to see the doctor at the health center, complaining of difficulty breathing and bleeding while passing urine,” an official who requested anonymity told Arab News. Medical officials were unable to conduct a thorough examination and confirm that the patients were infected with the Ebola virus as they ran away after being asked to produce their residency permits. The doctor present had instructed the center to take the patients to a hospital with better facilities before the duo took off. The matter was reported to police instantly, the source said.

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A senior doctor who treated Nigeria’s first Ebola patient has died, taking the death toll in Africa’s most populous country to five, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said on Tuesday. Chukwu said the doctor was “the most senior who participated in the management of the (first Ebola) patient” in the country. Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, 40, died in a Lagos hospital on July 25, five days after arriving at the city’s airport visibly unwell on a flight from the Liberian capital, Monrovia. “With this unfortunate development, the total number of Ebola virus-related deaths in Nigeria now stands at five,” Chukwu added.

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