Health workers death toll mounts as Ebola spreads in West Africa

Nigeria has confirmed a fresh case of Ebola in a doctor whose husband died from the virus, adding to a growing list of health care workers in West Africa hit by the epidemic. Nigeria’s medical community has paid a heavy price in the outbreak: Of the six people who have died from the disease in Africa’s most populous nation, two have been doctors and two others nurses. The woman’s husband was also a doctor who died in the city of Port Harcourt on Aug. 22 after treating a patient who had contact with the Liberian man who brought the virus to Nigeria in late July.

The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa is unprecedented in many ways, including the high proportion of doctors, nurses and other health care workers who have been infected.

World Health Organisation

The World Health Organisation said last week that more than 120 health workers across the region had died during the “unprecedented” outbreak that began this year, and more than 240 had been infected. The toll on health workers is all the more devastating in the three worst-hit nations—Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone—where more than 1,500 people have died and where there are just one or two doctors for every 100,000 people.

Africa ebola