MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the country on Friday over the Ebola outbreak in Africa’s most populous country, Reuters reported Friday.
The president also approved 1.9 billion naira ($11.6 million) of emergency funds to contain the outbreak, according to the news agency.
Nigeria is the third country after Liberia and Sierra Leone to declare the state of emergency due to the deadly virus.
Nigeria was the latest country to be affected by the virus and has claimed seven cases of Ebola, brought in by a man who fell sick on arrival from Liberia. Two people in Nigeria have died.
The total death toll in the worst Ebola outbreak in history and the first to occur in West Africa reached 961 people on August 6, Reuters cited the World Health Organization on Friday. The number of the infected people rose to 1,779, according to WHO.
The organization issued a statement on Friday acknowledging that the virus outbreak is an emergency situation of international importance.
The virus has killed four people in Guinea, where the outbreak originated, 12 in Sierra Leone and 12 in Liberia.
There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the Ebola virus, which has a case fatality rate of up to 90 percent. Medical workers use rehydration fluid and antibiotics to fight infections. Some groups have called for new drugs to be rolled out in Africa after two US aid workers infected with the virus responded positively to an experimental treatment known as Zmapp.
