U.S. air marshal boarded flight to U.S. after syringe attack in Nigerian airport

An on-duty U.S. air marshal was attacked with
a syringe in Nigeria’s main airport Sunday, but
FBI officials said the syringe didn’t appear
to include deadly pathogens such as the Ebola
virus, the Associated Press reported.
The marshal boarded a United flight after the
attack in Lagos, landing in Houston and then
went to the hospital, the AP reported. A law
enforcement official told CNN that the marshal
“felt fine” during the 12-hour flight.
The FBI said in a statement that “out of an
abundance of caution” the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention conducted an on-site
screening of the marshal when he landed
Monday morning. “The victim did not exhibit
any signs of illness during the flight and was
transported to a hospital upon landing for
further testing,” the statement read. “None of
the testing conducted has indicated a danger to
other passengers.”
It’s still unclear what was in the syringe,
though. CDC’s initial testing was negative for
deadly infectious agents, including “any bad
stuff” such as Ebola, FBI spokesman Christos
Sinos told AP.
The World Health Organization
announced Tuesday that West Africa has more
than 4,000 confirmed, probable and suspected
cases of Ebola. The virus is mostly
concentrated in Liberia, Sierra Leone and
Guinea, with just 21 of those cases in
Nigeria. But officials in Nigeria are cautious
about the epidemic within their borders; this
week, the country’s health ministry announced
477 people in the oil city of Port Harcourt
are under surveillance for Ebola.
Elahe Izadi is a general assignment national
reporter for The Washington Post. She can be
reached at elahe.izadi@washpost.com and on
Twitter @ElaheIzadi.