The deadly Ebola virus in Africa, which kills 90 percent of its victims has once more resurfaced with deadly ferocity. The virus has already killed the top doctor in the country of Liberia who was treating patients and has also infected two U.S. health care workers.
When the virus first appeared, almost 30 years ago, the victims were first in the rural areas and then it traveled to urban areas. But this outbreak of the virus has starterd in urban areas and has caused some people familiar with the spread of the virus grave concern. The virus has reached crisis proportions in West Africa and was a plane ride away from reaching the United States.
The latest victim that made world news was Patrick Sawyer, 40, who was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who worked for the Finance Ministry of Liberia. Sawyer regularly traveled to Africa and this time went to visit his sick sister in Liberia who died from Ebola. According to Sawyer’s wife, he was unaware of the nature of his sister’s illness. Apparently Sawyer became ill on July 20 during the more than six hour flight that took him from Liberia then to Lome, Togo and finally to Lagos where he was going to attend an economic development conference. According to media reports, he collapsed at the Lagos, Nigeria Airport and was place in isolation at First Consultants Hospital in Obalende, Nigeria, where he died July 25. The airline which transported him, ASKY, did suspend all service to Liberia and to Sierra Leone, however it was unable to give a passenger manifest to the Nigerian government. Now the Nigerian government seeks to contact at least 30,000 unknown people who could be hosting the Ebola virus.
