Lagos, Nigeria – Bird flu has claimed its first human victim in Africa’s most-populous nation, killing a young Nigerian woman due to graduate from a university and be married this year, officials and the victim’s fiancé said Wednesday.
The Jan. 17 death in Lagos, a teeming city where chickens and other fowl are raised in close quarters with humans, is an ominous development in a nation with poor health care and little government presence in remote areas.
The victim, whose name was not released, was finishing her accounting degree and got engaged last month, her fiancé said. He asked not to be named so that his loved one’s family could grieve in peace.
Another woman, a member of the dead woman’s household, also was infected, Information Minister Frank Nweke said, but was responding to treatment.
Nigeria’s top bird flu expert, Abdullahi Nasidi, said there may be more cases, including deaths.
An outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu hit Nigeria last year, but no human infections had been reported until Wednesday.
