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“It makes you nervous when so many people are potentially at risk,” he said.

Authorities in Liberia said Sawyer’s sister had recently died of Ebola, though Sawyer said he had not had close contact with her while she was ill.

In announcing Sawyer’s death, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu maintained late last month that Nigerian officials had been vigilant in isolating him.

“It was right there (at the airport) that the problem was noticed because we have maintained our surveillance,” he told reporters. “And immediately, he went into the custody of the port health services of the federal ministry of health so there was no time for him to mingle in Lagos. He has not been in touch with any other person again since we took him from the airport.”

Chukwu’s comments were at odds with remarks made Tuesday by the Lagos state health commissioner, who said doctors did not suspect Ebola immediately and identified Sawyer as a possible case only after he had been hospitalized for about a day.

Sawyer, who had a fever and was vomiting on the plane, was coming from the infected country of Liberia but had a layover in Togo. As a result, officials may not have initially known his original point of departure, and it was unclear whether he was traveling on a Liberian or American passport.

Experts say people infected with Ebola can spread the disease only after they show symptoms. Since the incubation period can last up to three weeks, some of the Nigerians who treated Sawyer are only now showing signs of illness.

The national health minister on Wednesday said special tents would be used to establish isolation wards in all of Nigeria’s states. Authorities were setting up an emergency center in Lagos to deal with Ebola and expected the facility to be “fully functional” by Thursday, he said.

Also Wednesday, the Spanish Defense Ministry said a medically equipped plane was ready to fly to Liberia to bring back a Spanish missionary priest who has Ebola. At the same time, Saudi officials reported a suspected Ebola death, underscoring the risk of the disease spreading by air travel even as many airlines curtail their flights to the most infected cities.

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