Ebola: Corpse From Liberia Causes Panic In Anambra •It Has Killed 729 —WHO •Kolanut Can Cure It —Prof Maurice •US THERE was tension, on Thursday, in Anambra State, as the state government raises the alarm over suspected Ebola-infected corpse flown from Liberia to the state through Lagos. The Anambra State Ministry of Health, on Thursday, announced that there are fears in the state that the dreaded Ebola disease might have sneaked into the state through a corpse deposited in Apex Mortuary, Nkwelle Ezunaka, Oyi Local Government Area, at the weekend. It was gathered that the corpse was deposited at one of the morgues at the weekend and already over 50 persons in contact with the corpse had been quarantined until epidemiologists from Federal Ministry of Health certifies them free. The state government, through the state Ministry of Health, immediately ordered for temporal closure of the hospital until the staff and patients, including the deceased family members, were screened by the epidemiology unit of the Federal Ministry of Health. Speaking to newsmen in his office, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Josephat Akabuike, disclosed that the corpse was flown into the state at the weekend, adding that the state had collected all the necessary preventive garments to protect the virus from spreading. “We had a report that a corpse was brought into the state through Lagos and the deceased was said to be taken from Liberia, where there is a several reported cases of ebola virus disease.” The commissioner also informed that the state government had instituted a rapid response team, saddled with the responsibility of responding to emergencies, revealing that the state governor, Chief Willie Obiano,had ordered for the acquisition of 400 personal protective equipment to protect the health workers in the state. He urged all residents to call the following emergency numbers, 08030890440 or 08030864502 anytime there was a suspected case of Ebola disease in their area. We are on top of the situation —LUTH •As Ondo moves to prevent spread From Moyosore Solarin and Yinka Oladoyinbo The Chief Medical Director (CMD), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Professor Akin Osibogun, has revealed that despite the ongoing doctors’ nationwide strike, the hospital has put in place a preparedness team in the case of an unexpected spread of the Ebola virus disease. He stated this at a press conference held on the hospital premises in Lagos, on Thursday. According to him, “we have put in place isolatory and barrier nursing measures and have set in motion a preparedness team to be able to handle an unexpected spread of the Ebola virus.” In response to speculations that one of the people under supervision, having had contact with the Liberian, who brought the virus into Nigeria, had begun to show symptoms of being infected, Osibogun said no information affirming that development had reached him. He added that LUTH had the capacity and technical needs to attend to cases if a spread did happen “but the most important thing is for Nigerians to be enlightened on the disease, which the Lagos State government and Federal Mministry of Health are working on,” urging Nigerians to imbibe a constant hand washing and sanitary culture. Meanwhile, the Ondo State government has commenced moves to prevent the spread of Ebola virus disease to the state. The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Dayo Adeyanju, said this at a one-day sensitisation meeting with public and private health practitioners in Ondo State, on the prevention of the spread of the virus. According to him, the state had designated three hospitals with facilities to quarantine any suspected case in the state. The centres are Federal Medical Centre, Owo for the northern senatorial district; State Specialist Hospital, Akure for the Central senatorial district and the State Specialist Hospital, Okitipupa, to take care of the south. The commissioner also said the state would train 30 nurses that would serve the three designated centres. He also said that health facilities across the state would be strengthened with necessary equipment to prevent the spread of the disease into the state. Adeyanju lamented that the Ebola virus scourge reared its ugly head at a time that the state was about to get to zero level HIV/AIDS prevalence. US issues travel warning to 3 African countries The United States (US), on Thursday, issued travel warnings for three countries hit by the Ebola outbreak: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The warning to avoid non-essential travel from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was the first the agency has issued since 2003, which was in response to SARS in Asia. Kolanut can cure it —Prof Maurice Iwu ACCORDING to a research, led by Professor Maurice Iwu, head, the Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme, a plant, commonly eaten in West Africa, Garcinia kola has been found to halt the deadly Ebola virus in its tracks in laboratory tests. If repeated in humans, this would give the body a chance to fight off the virus. They used a compound from Garcinia kola, a plant. Compounds from the plant have also proved effective against some strains of flu. If the anti-Ebola compound proves successful in animal and human trials, it will be the first medicine to successfully treat the virus that causes Ebola haemorrhagic fever, an often-fatal condition. The discovery was announced at the 16th International Botanical Congress in St Louis in the United States of America in 1999. The Ebola virus was first documented in 1976 after an outbreak in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 88 per cent of the 318 human cases died. More recently, a 1995 outbreak in the same country had a death rate of 81% of the 315 infected. There are four types of the virus; they include Ebola-Zaire, Ebola-Sudan and Ebola-Ivory Coast, which affect humans and Ebola-Reston, which has so far only affected monkeys and chimpanzees. “This is a very exciting discovery, the same forest that yields the dreaded Ebola virus could be a source of the cure.” said Professor Iwu. The virus multiplies rapidly in the human body and quickly overwhelms it, and in advanced cases the patient develops high fever and severe bleeding. The active compound in the Garcinia kola is what is known as a dimeric flavonoid, which is two flavonoid molecules fused together. Flavonoids are non-toxic and can be found in orange and lemon rinds as well as the colourings of other plants. The tests are in the early stages still, but the researchers hope that if they continue to prove successful the compound the US Food and Drug Administration will put it on a fast track, making a drug available to humans within a matter of years. “The discovery of these important properties in a simple compound; flavonoids, was very surprising,” said Dr Iwu. “The structure of this compound lends itself to modification, so it provides a template for future work. “Even if this particular drug does not succeed through the whole drug approval process, we can use it to construct a new drug for this deadly disease,” he added. It has killed 729 people —WHO •Set to launch $100m response plan ACCORDING to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 57 more deaths from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa have pushed the overall fatality toll from the outbreak to 729. Stating this on Thursday, the UN health agency stated that the 57 deaths were recorded between Thursday and Sunday, last week in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. It added that 122 new cases were detected over the four days, taking the total number of confirmed and likely infected cases to 1,323, AFP reported. Meanwhile, The head of the WHO and presidents of the West African countries suffering the world’s the Ebola outbreak are to meet in Guinea on Friday to launch a $100 million (75 million euros) emergency joint response plan. “The scale of the outbreak requires WHO, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, to take the response to a new level,” WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a statement. Tribune.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 08:59:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015