NIGERIAN AMBASSADOR IN LIBERIA WHERE ARE YOU? IF I WERE YOU I WOULD HAVE RESIGN TO ACCEPT THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALOWING EBOLA VICTIM TO CAME INTO NIGERIA; Ebola - Another Nurse Dies, Doctor Tests Positive. Another Nigerian doctor, who was part of the team that treated the late Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, has fallen victim of the Ebola virus. This is coming just as another nurse who also administered medication on the man was reported to have died in Lagos on Thursday. A nurse who was part of the team that treated Sawyer had similarly died last week. The case of the latest nurse brought the number of deaths recorded from the Ebola scourge in Nigeria to four. Sawyer, who flew in from Liberia into Nigeria, died on July 25 at First Foundation Hospital, Lagos, after testing positive for Ebola virus. He was the index case of the Ebola virus disease in Nigeria. One of the Protocol Officers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission office in Lagos who received Sawyer at the airport, Jatto Asihu Abdulqudir, also died early in the week. Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chykwu, confirmed the latest cases of the doctor who has taken ill and the dead nurse as a result of the Ebola virus. Sawyer had collapsed at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, on July 20 as a result of which he was rushed to a private hospital, First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, Lagos. Chukwu told newsmen in Abuja on Thursday that Nigeria was doing all it could to contain the virus. Eight other persons are down with the virus. But Chukwu sounded optimistic on their cases. Eight (others) are still alive, more than half of them are doing very well and actually showing signs of recovery ... under treatment, Chukwu said. A nurse with Ebola, which she also contacted from the late Sawyer, had skipped quarantine in Lagos and headed to her home in Enugu, where she was suspected to have had contact with 20 other people. However, Chukwu said after initial screening, it was realised that only six people had been in contact with her, and those six have been put under surveillance. Reports on Thursday said the infected nurse has been returned to Lagos, together with her husband, in a special ambulance. Of the nurse, the minister said: As at yesterday (Wednesday), we were following on 21 of them, but after a very stringent and rigorous interview, we found out that 15 do not qualify as contacts because people who probably stayed far away the subject claimed they are contacts. So, as at this morning (Thursday) we have only six contacts, this shows you the amount of work being done every hour. I repeat, surveillance in Enugu is on six, surveillance in Lagos, 169; all secondary contacts, the ones in Enugu are also secondary contacts. There is no more primary contact who is under surveillance. The primary contacts who are sick and are being treated are eight, the primary contacts who were but died were two and of course the index case is late. Total number of cases confirmed this morning are 11, three dead, eight under treatment. Regarding the contact in Enugu, one of the primary contacts at the time she has no symptom disobeyed the management committee and left Lagos. She was newly married and she went to visit the husband. Only two of them lived in the house in Enugu. But when she developed the first symptom, she got alarmed and she went to a health facility from where it was reported to the incident management committee and since then, she is under treatment in Lagos having being among the 11 that have been confirmed positive. The husband, even though has not shown any symptoms till now, he is not Ebola positive as at now, but he is under quarantine because of the intimate contact in Lagos. When she was going to Enugu, she did not infect anybody because she had no symptoms that time. You can only infect someone if you have symptoms. She did not infect anybody on her way to Enugu. On her return journey to Lagos, both of them travelled in special ambulances. Presently, only six secondary contacts are under surveillance in Enugu down from the initial 21, the minister added. Chukwu also disclosed that a trial drug for Ebola, Nano Silver, has been developed by a Nigerian scientist. According to him, the drug has been used experimentally for many things and was expected to be sent to Lagos on Thursday for the treatment of the already confirmed Ebola patients. Also, the Dangote Foundation has donated N152,956,250 to fight the Ebola virus in the country. Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation, Adhiebong Adaga, while making the announcement said: After bilateral discussion between the Minister of Health and his group, the Dangote Foundation funded the establishment of the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre in Lagos. This is being done from grant through the foundation of just a little over N150 million, he said. The strategy that our chairman is deploying is the strategy to respond and to commend government for the effort and to show that all Nigerians are concerned. We will continue to talk to the ministry on what additional support we can offer and we have been approached by several parties who are interested in partnering with the government and we will continue to do that, Adaga added. Meanwhile, friends and relations of staff of the First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, who are being quarantined for having primary contacts while treating the late Sawyer on Thursday lamented what they called poor treatment and environmental condition at the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre, at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, Lagos. Speaking at a news briefing on behalf of the families of the staff, Ladi Okuboyejo, Managing Director, Premium Health (HMO); Deji Adeyanju and Helen Boyo-Ekwueme noted that the Senior Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist of the hospital, A.S Adadevoh, together with the other staff had in the course of their duty duly treated late Sawyer without the fore-knowledge of his Ebola status. The families pointed out that in the process, the staff became victims of primary contacts with the deceased and were infected with the virus. Okuboyejo noted: Though the Federal Government is doing its utmost best to contain the spread of the disease but there is a lot more we can do to address this situation. Nigeria is too big to be ignored. This disease is new to us in Nigeria and there are experts globally that have the experience in treating Ebola globally. We need to tap into their expertise in country. It is a learning curve for everyone. It is beyond our capacity to handle. If this gets out of control, the consequences you know, Okuboyejo warned. In a related development, members of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) have promised to step up local production of hand wash and sanitizers since most of those available in the country are imported and are already out of stock. In a statement President of the PSN, Olumide Akintayo, said: For some years now, pharmacists under the aegis of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) have embarked on several public health campaigns in a bid to promote proper hand washing and the use of hand sanitizers where soap and water is not readily available. However, these campaigns werent very successful as most Nigerians didnt take the issue of hand hygiene very seriously. Colleagues involved in these campaigns stocked their pharmacies with these sanitizers only to be compelled to give them out as souvenirs to prevent them from expiring on the shelves, Akintayo lamented. From Ilorin came another report that a suspected case of the Ebola disease has been discovered in Kwara State. The committee set up by the state government on the control of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) disclosed this on Thursday. The committee, however, allayed fears of outbreak of the disease in the state, saying the suspected case was discovered on Wednesday in a seven- month old baby just brought in to the state. Chairman of the committee, Sunday Opabola, who briefed newsmen on the development, emphasised that there is no confirmed case of the disease in the state as being speculated. Opabola, a Professor of Medicine, who also doubles as Senior Special Assistant to the state Governor on Public Health, said the baby was found with some symptoms which are not exclusive to Ebola disease, but also have to do with those of lassa fever, cholera, malaria and some others. He explained that the baby had been taken along to Ilorin by his parents who came to the town for a visit from Ibadan after one of those taking care of him had returned to Ibadan from Lagos. He said the baby initially came up with symptoms of malaria and was being treated on that for about two days without improvement before his mother was advised to take him to a private paediatric specialist hospital in Ilorin. Obapola disclosed that the paediatrician medical director of the hospital carried out a clinical assessment on the patient and discovered Ebola- like symptoms such as fever, diarrhoea, and vomiting of contents that partly contained blood. He said this made the doctor to make a report of the babys case to the relevant government agency for necessary actions. The committee chairman disclosed that government immediately took the baby to the state Specialist Hospital at Sobi area in the town for proper attention with samples already being taken for tests at two centres in Lagos, including the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). He said the results of the tests are expected to be out today. He also disclosed that the state Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, has already ordered for test equipment to be installed at the state Advanced Diagnosis Centre in Ilorin. Opabola disclosed that the government had begun contact tracing with the use of the standard recommended by the World Heath Organisation (WHO) to ensure the exercise was effective to keep the state safe of possible spread of the Ebola virus. He also disclosed that the government has decided to temporarily close down the private hospital where the baby was taken to. He added that those treating the baby at the Specialist Hospital use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while ambulance used to take him to the place has been dedicated for such an assignment while it is to be regularly decontaminated. Opabola disclosed that the government has also decided to establish isolation and quarantine centres at the Specialist Hospital and the General Hospital at Omu-Aran in south district of the state and at Okuta in the north district. On its part, Enugu State Government has said it has established centres for referral, diagnosis, isolation and surveillance of likely carriers of the Ebola virus. State Commissioner for Health, George Eze, disclosed this at a briefing in Enugu on Thursday. He said the centres are at Collary Hospital Enugu, Ikem, Nsukka and Oji district hospitals, all within the state. The Red Cross Society in Anambra State also on Thursday demonstrated awareness on measures to take in tackling the Ebola scourge. Vice Chairman of the Red Cross in the state, Peter Katchy, delivered a lecture to a cross section of Red Cross officials, soldiers, police, Navy, Immigration, Civil Defence among others on the Ebola virus. The lecture was entitled, Nigerian Red Cross Society Anambra State preparedness and response plan programme for Ebola Virus Disease. Katchy dwelt into the origin, statistics of victims already claimed by Ebola virus disease, where each strand of disease originated from and strategy on how to tackle if it ever occurs in Anambra State.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 06:58:50 +0000
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