A 51-year-old medical doctor on Wednesday became the first health worker in Nigeria to die of COVID-19 after contracting the virus from a patient he had treated.

The doctor, who died at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, was rushed to the facility on Monday after attempting to manage a COVID-19 patient in a private hospital in Lagos.

The Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee of the hospital, Prof Wasiu Adeyemo, said the doctor was not a staff of the hospital but was rushed to the facility after he showed symptoms of the disease.

“The doctor is not a LUTH staff; he was a private practitioner, though he trained in LUTH some 18, 20 years ago. I remember I met him, I know him, he left LUTH around 2002. One of his classmates called me that he has some issues in his private hospital, so I asked that he should be brought to LUTH. He was COVID-19 positive, we started him on drugs but unfortunately, he died this morning (Wednesday),” Adeyemo said.


The LUTH CMAC said he would not disclose the name of the doctor and his hospital, saying it is against the ethics of the medical profession.