Nigeria declares Ebola outbreak national emergency

The Nigerian government on Wednesday described the Ebola outbreak in the country as a national emergency.

Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu said this at an emergency meeting convened by the House of Representatives Committee on Health over the Ebola outbreak in Abuja, the nation's capital city.

He said out of six Nigerians diagnosed with Ebola virus, one had died on Tuesday, adding that the other five patients were receiving treatment.

The minister said everyone in the world now was at risk, adding that the experience of Nigeria had opened the eyes of the world to the reality of Ebola.

He said there was no empirical evidence to show that bitter kola will prevent or cure the highly infectious disease.

The outbreak, by far the largest in the nearly 40-year history of the disease, has infected 1,711 people and killed 932 this year in four western African countries -- Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone -- according to the World Health Organization.