DOHA
The United Arab Emirates on Sunday reported the first suspected Ebola virus death for a Nigerian woman who arrived to Abu Dhabi on the way to India.
In a statement, Abu Dhabi Health Authority said the 35-year-old Nigerian woman was en route from Nigeria to India on a treatment tour from advanced cancer.
Her condition deteriorated as she waited at the airport for her India-bound flight, which made it necessary for a medical team to intervene, it added.
The team could not, however, rescue the woman, the authority said.
It added that aid responders trying to resuscitate the woman noticed Ebola-like symptoms on her body, even as the same symptoms can be connected with her advanced cancer case.
In recent months, Ebola has claimed more than 1000 lives across West Africa, especially in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Nigeria has registered four Ebola deaths.
The virus, which first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, can be transmitted to humans from wild animals and then spreads through contact with the body fluids of infected people.
Ebola has no confirmed cure or vaccine yet.
The World Health Organization's emergency committee on Ebola declared the disease an international public health emergency, the third time such an alarm has been raised by the committee ever.
By Ahmed al-Masri
www.aa.com.tr/en
