Ebola virus viewed through an electron microscope. (Associated Press)
Two new cases of Ebola have emerged in Nigeria and, in an alarming development, they are outside the group of caregivers who treated an airline passenger who arrived with Ebola and died, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said on Friday.
Chukwu told reporters in Abuja, the capital, the two are spouses of a man and woman who had direct contact with Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, who flew into the country last month with the virus and infected 11 others before he died in July, including the male and female caregiver who both subsequently died of Ebola.
The last two cases bring the total number of confirmed infections in Nigeria, including Sawyer, to 14. Five have died from the illness, five recovered were discharged from hospital while another four are being treated in isolation in Lagos, the commercial capital where Sawyer's flight landed.
Chukwu says five patients.
In Liberia, another of the affected countries, a teenage boy has died after being shot by security forces in a sprawling slum community that was blockaded to stop the spread of Ebola, said a Liberian government spokesman.
Information Minister Lewis Brown said in a radio interview Friday morning that the boy, Shakie Kamara, was shot Wednesday by security forces trying to prevent riots and looting in the West Point community.
He said officials were contacting Kamara's family "to express our sympathy" over the death.
West Point has been a flash point for violence related to the Ebola outbreak, which has killed 576 people in Liberia and 1,350 in West Africa.