(CNN) — A Liberian man who was hospitalized in Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, with the Ebola virus has died, Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.
“The patient was subjected to thorough medical tests … which confirmed he had the Ebola virus,” Chukwu said Friday.
The case has raised fears that the virus could spread beyond the three countries at the center of what health officials say is the deadliest ever Ebola outbreak and into Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria. Lagos has more than 20 million residents.
As of July 20, some 1,093 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are thought to have been infected by Ebola since its symptoms were first observed four months ago, according to the World Health Organization. Testing confirmed the Ebola virus in 786 of those cases, of whom 442 died.
Of the 1,093 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, 660 people have died.
The man hospitalized in Lagos was a 40-year-old Liberian working for a West African organization in Monrovia, Liberia, according to the Lagos State Ministry of Health.
He arrived at Lagos airport on Sunday and was isolated in a local hospital after showing symptoms associated with the virus. He told officials that he had no direct contact with anyone with the virus nor attended the burial of anyone who died of Ebola.
The Lagos State Ministry of Health had said Thursday that “the patient’s condition is stable and is in recovery” and that the results of testing for Ebola infection were still pending in his case. Infection control measures were in place in the hospital, officials said.