Man with Ebola symptoms quarantined in Spain

 Kano - A Nigerian man exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms has
been quarantined in southern Spain, while Kenya has said it
will ban passengers travelling from virus-hit areas in West
Africa starting on Tuesday.
While the World Health Organisation declared the Ebola
outbreak in West Africa an international health emergency
and said it was moving faster than could be controlled, aid
groups have warned that efforts to stem the epidemic
were "dangerously inadequate".
Officials in Alicante, southern Spain, said the man checked
into a hospital with a fever. Doctors determined that he
was suffering from Ebola-like symptoms, and he was
referred to a special isolation clinic for tests
Ebola claimed its first European victim five days ago and
has killed 1 145 people in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and
Sierra Leone, according to WHO.
On Saturday, Kenyan Health Minister James Macharia said
all passengers travelling from Sierra Leone, Liberia and
Guinea would be barred entry to Kenya, after four visitors
from these countries had shown Ebola-like symptoms.
WHO underestimated outbreak
The ban will significantly hamper travel across the
continent as Nairobi airport is a crucial connection for
African air travel.
"WHO has admitted the magnitude of the Ebola outbreak in
West Africa was vastly underestimated and the current
outbreak is expected to continue for some time," Macharia
said.
While WHO had called on the affected countries to
postpone mass gatherings if possible and to screen
outbound air travellers, it did not recommend a general
travel ban to and from West Africa.

WHO also stressed that designating the Ebola epidemic a
"Public Health Emergency of International Concern" does
not mean that it expects the virus to spread around the
globe, but that it wants all countries to be more vigilant.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said that a
female doctor who was infected in Lagos has become the
first person to recover.
The woman - who fell ill after coming into contact with
Liberian-American government official Patrick Sawyer, who
subsequently died from the disease - has been discharged
from hospital, the minister said.
Ebola patients escape from centre
Five others who had been placed under surveillance "have
almost recovered", he said.
Governments across Africa are ramping up measures to
stop the worst-ever outbreak of the disease from
spreading across the continent.
In the Liberian capital Monrovia - one of the worst-hit cities
- 17 Ebola patients escaped from an isolation centre in a
densely populated slum after the government said it would
quarantine the entire community.

The West Point slum, which is home to around 75,000
people, is considered a hotbed for disease, crime and
drugs. Dozens of residents helped the patients to escape
from the unit, while shouting slogans against President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's Ebola policies.
The current outbreak is caused by the most lethal strain in
the family of Ebola viruses. Ebola causes massive
haemorrhages and has a fatality rate of up to 90%. It is
transmitted through blood and other body fluids.