EBOLA UPDATE: 3 New Supected Cases Pop Up In Port Harcourt, Hundreds Under Surveillance Three persons have been ferried to the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) quarantine centre at Oduoha, Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, after showing symptoms consistent with the ailment. Those under quarantine are a doctor, a pharmacist and a lady who came into contact with Dr Iyke Enemuo, who died of the virus in Port Harcourt on August 22. The pharmacist and the doctor are members of staff of Sam Steel Hospital while the nurse worked at the Good Heart Hospital where Enemuo lost his life to the virus. The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Mr. Sampson Parker said the State was embarking on contact tracing measures on hundreds of secondary contacts and that so many persons have gone into hiding and into miracle churches for healing instead of coming forward for observation and treatment. “Almost 200 persons have been line-traced. Out of this number, we are still in touch with about 60 of them. “But 50 high risk contacts have been identified. Because of stigma and the rest of them, these persons are not coming up but we are still on them. “We are concentrating on the names we have to capture in our (monitoring) activities but the good news is that we have been making good progress in checking the spread of Ebola,” said Mr. Parker. He also advised Rivers State citizens against panicking and taking treatment measures into their hands. “People should know that Ebola is not a death sentence and that they should come out. I must tell you that in Lagos, most of them that came out early survived. Only the ones that were going from one church to the other until their cases degenerated, died. “We must let the public know that any one that came into contact with primary and secondary contacts to Dr. Enemuo or the clinics and the hotel should voluntarily contact us. It does not mean they are infected. All we need is just to observe them. “Chances of survival are very high. It is very important that members of the public know this so that we do not waste time looking for people who are hiding. We know some persons are hiding but we are advising them to come out. “Some of them are running into churches and most of them are laying hands on them without knowing. “People should please check their level of anointing before they do that. This is a strong advice for pastors”, he said. The fatal Ebola hemorrhagic fever found its way into the Garden City after Doctor Enemuo contracted the virus while treating an ECOWAS diplomat, Koye Olu-Ibukun, who had traveled to Port Harcourt after coming in contact with the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer. Sawyer died from the virus in Lagos, Nigeria and was the first person to die of Ebola in Africa’s most populous country.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:24:12 +0000
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