Nigeria Confirms 2 New Ebola Cases

Nigeria Confirms 2 New Ebola Cases

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9:19 AM ET

A Nigerian port health official wears protective gear at the arrivals hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, Wednesday Aug. 6, 2014. Sunday Alamba—AP

The two are the first infected people who didn’t have contact with the ill traveler

Nigeria’s health ministry confirmed Friday two new cases of Ebola in the country, the first people to come down with the disease who didn’t have direct contact with an infected traveler who brought the virus into the country from nearby Liberia.
Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said both newly infected people are the spouses of two caregivers who contracted the virus and later died after giving treatment to Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who flew into the country infected with the virus last month.
Sawyer passed Ebola on to 11 other individuals before he died. The two new infections plus Sawyer bring the total number of Ebola patients in Nigeria during this outbreak to 14, five of whom have died while another five have recovered.