Nigeria's health minister claims a Liberian man who died in the commercial capital of Lagos has tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus.

If confirmed, the man would be the first case on record of one of the world's deadliest diseases in Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, and with 170 million people, its most populous country.

Ebola has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since it was first diagnosed in February.

The victim, named as Patrick Sawyer, a consultant in his 40s who worked for the Liberian finance ministry, collapsed on Sunday after flying into Lagos and was taken from the airport and put in isolation in a local hospital.

Nigeria's health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu announced Mr Sawyer had died on Friday.

"His blood sample was taken to the advance laboratory at the Lagos university teaching hospital, which confirmed the diagnosis of the Ebola virus disease in the patient," Professor Chukwu said.

"This result was corroborated by other laboratories outside Nigeria."

But World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman Paul Garwood said the UN health agency was still waiting for test results.

"We're still waiting for laboratory-confirmed results as to whether he died of Ebola or not," he said.

"I understand that he was vomiting and he then turned himself over basically, he made it known that he wasn't feeling well. Nigerian health authorities took him and put him in isolation."



A Nigerian official stressed that Mr Sawyer had not entered the city of Lagos itself, which with 21 million people makes it Africa's largest.

The victim's sister had died of Ebola three weeks ago, and the degree of contact between the two is being investigated by Liberian officials.

Nigeria has some of the continent's least adequate healthcare infrastructure, despite access to billions of dollars of oil money as Africa's biggest producer of crude.

Professor of virology at the University of Reading in Britain, Ian Jones, says the disease would be easier to contain in cities than in rural areas.

"The fear of spread within a dense population would be offset by better health care and a willingness to use it, easier contact tracing and, I assume for an urban population, less risky funerary and family rites," he said.

Reuters