Nigerian Nurse Dies of Ebola in Lagos
Abuja, Lagos — It was a solemn atmosphere in Abuja Wednesday as the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, and his Information counterpart, Labaran Maku, disclosed that five other Nigerians including medical personnel had contacted the Ebola virus. They were all infected by the late Patrick Sawyer.
In all, Nigeria has now recorded seven cases of the disease. These include two cases, consisting of the Liberian and the nurse, who are dead. The other five cases are being tested at an isolation ward in Lagos State.
The minister told reporters: "Yesterday, August 5, 2014, the first known Nigerian to die of the Ebola Virus Disease was recorded and this was one of the nurses that attended to the Liberian. The other five cases are currently being treated.
"It is pertinent to note that all the Nigerians diagnosed of the EVD were primary contacts of the index case. The 24/7 emergency operations centre which I intimated you of in my last press conference will be fully functional by tomorrow. It will be headed by Dr. Faisal Shuaibu as the incident manager. He will later today lead a six-man interagency team drawn from National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the U.S. CDC, the WHO, UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Lagos to complete the setting up of the centre. They will be joined by the other personnel from Lagos State government and the federal hospitals in the Lagos area as well as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control."
He continued: "I have also appointed a Director of Communication and Community Mobilization who will be based in Lagos.
"We are embarking on recruiting additional health personnel to strengthen the team who are currently managing the situation in Lagos.
"We are making an arrangement to procure isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all the states of the federation and the federal capital territory.
"We are also setting up a special team to provide counseling and psychological support to patients, identified contacts and their families.
"Within the week, I and the Minister of Information would be visiting Lagos State to assess the situation on ground."
He assured that government was working hard to ensure that the outbreak was contained.
The minister said that the Federal Government had already reached out to the United States Center for Disease Control to request the unapproved Ebola drug ZMapp, for the treatment of affected persons in Nigeria.
The government urged Nigerian doctors who have been on strike for the past seven weeks to call off the action, particularly since all their demands have been met.
The Ebola drug was administered on Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, two American aid workers, who left Liberia for the United States who were gravely ill, as a result of infection with the Ebola virus in Liberia.
Both aid workers had shown improvement after taking the drug produced by a San Diego company, which had three doses of an experimental Ebola medicine that showed promise in monkeys but had never been tested in humans.
The minister stressed personal hygiene, saying, "When you don't need to give handshake please don't, wash your hands and use hand sanitizer as often as you can in the interest of public health."
He corrected the impression that everyone is meant to wear hand gloves, saying only health personnel and immigration officers are most vulnerable.
He said: "The general public does not need hand gloves. Health personnel are the most vulnerable and they change the gloves regularly and do not take them home. Also those at immigration points are advised to wear gloves and to change regularly. The Ebola organism is weak outside the body, so frequent washing of hands and using hand sanitizer is advisable. Don't try to form your own liquid."
He also advised families of affected persons not to share the same bed sheets, pillowcases and towels, as they stand a great risk of contacting the virus through bodily fluid. The disease, according to him, is both contagious and infectious. "If you are close to an affected person you can contact it via sneezing, coughing as they pass out droplets."
According to him, the virus is not infectious during incubation period, and that in five days it would make 21days since the late Patrick Sawyer came into the country, and only then would those exposed to him be confirmed to be free or have the disease.
On the issue of whether the constitution backs cases being quarantined, Chukwu said: "The constitution provides that government has the right to quarantine anybody suspected to have Ebola in the interest of public health."
Maku on his part advised Nigerians to be wary of quacks who would want to take advantage of the situation. He said: "Any substance or drug that has not been proven and announced by the Ministry of Health or NAFDAC is not a cure, ignore it."
The minister advised unsuspecting Nigerians not to be hoodwinked by unpatriotic Nigerians who might want to cash in on the existing uncertainty and desperation to swindle them, citing a case of the claim that bitter cola nut is an antidote to Ebola.
On another occasion, Chukwu faulted a report that an unnamed doctor that treated Sawyer is dead.
The minister, who spoke when he appeared before the Mr. Ndudi Elumelu-led members of the House of Representatives Committee on Health at the National Assembly complex urged the media to desist from spreading falsehood in the interest of the citizenry.
The minister said under the communication strategy put in place by the presidency, his office remained the only authority that could speak on the dreaded disease.
The minister disclosed that stringent measures had been put in place to ensure the screening of corpses moved into the country from abroad.
Though he admitted that a study carried out years ago in the United States (U.S.) by Prof. Maurice Iwu shows promising signs that it could cure the virus, such findings could not be said to be considered conclusive since it was not taken to its logical end.
The Head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Abdulsalami Nasidi, who was with the minister disclosed that there were 70 registered contacts with the diseased Liberian Ebola victim, adding that of the figure 39 persons were hospital contacts while 22 others were airport contacts.
The head of ports health services, Dr Sani Gwarzo, who disclosed that there were 68 entry points in the country, warned against the closure of the country's borders.
Stating that his office in conjunction with other stakeholders had put in place measures to stem the spread of the virus through the use of tracking devices, he explained that keeping the borders open would help avert a situation whereby his outfit would not be able to track those who exploit unconventional routes to enter the country.
Besides, the Lagos State government has promised to give life insurance cover to doctors and other health professionals who volunteer to work with experts monitoring and testing suspected cases of the Ebola Virus Disease.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, who disclosed this in Lagos yesterday, said the government was facing a shortage of experts, doctors and health workers that were needed to attend to those that had been infected and those that were going to be isolated for monitoring.
According to Idris, the state government would be providing life insurance cover for any doctor, nurse and any other expert who wants to work with isolated patients, adding that the health sector needs more hands, "because we have moved from the stage of primary contacts to secondary contacts."
Idris said: "We are tracing all the people that had contact not just with Sawyer, but those that had contacts with the health workers and others that have died. We have identified 27 secondary contacts already, we are tracing the addresses of others.
"It is a tedious task, because we will also be taking their blood samples for testing and we will be monitoring them.
"We are appealing to the doctors on strike to resume work and set aside their grievances. No doubt this situation is a dire emergency and our health professionals must recognise that.
"It will be morally unjustifiable for us to call for help from the international community if our own experts and doctors are not working."
Idris said it would also be evacuating tuberculosis patients receiving treatment at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Yaba to another hospital to accommodate more suspected and isolated cases.
"The TB patients at Mainland hospital were protesting this morning but we appealed to them, that if they stay there they may be exposed and get infected.
"If we need to evacuate any hospital to ensure that we contain this disease, we will do it. If we have to take suspected cases to LASUTH, we will do it. If we need to take decisions that will be inconvenient for some people but beneficial to the larger population, we will do it. Ebola is a highly infectious disease. We will do it to contain it," he said.
Already, intending pilgrims from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia may have to wait as the Saudi authorities may have suspended issuance of visa to them.
A patient suspected to be infected with the EVD in a recent business trip to Sierra Leone was confirmed dead in Jeddah, the Saudi capital yesterday.
The infection was confirmed by the Saudi authorities and World Health Organisation (WHO) laboratories after the test samples of the victim certified EVD symptoms of "viral hemorrhagic fever".
The Saudi Health Ministry stated it was working to trace the man travel's route and identify those he had contact with.
Upon this, Saudi kingdom has suspended pilgrimage visas from West African countries as way to check possible spread of the deadly disease.
EVD, according to WHO, has so far claimed about 900 people in the West African sub region, representing 60 per cent casualty of the virus in the world.
Read more: http://allafrica.com/stories/201408070412.html?viewall=1#ixzz39hIlzAbB
In all, Nigeria has now recorded seven cases of the disease. These include two cases, consisting of the Liberian and the nurse, who are dead. The other five cases are being tested at an isolation ward in Lagos State.
The minister told reporters: "Yesterday, August 5, 2014, the first known Nigerian to die of the Ebola Virus Disease was recorded and this was one of the nurses that attended to the Liberian. The other five cases are currently being treated.
"It is pertinent to note that all the Nigerians diagnosed of the EVD were primary contacts of the index case. The 24/7 emergency operations centre which I intimated you of in my last press conference will be fully functional by tomorrow. It will be headed by Dr. Faisal Shuaibu as the incident manager. He will later today lead a six-man interagency team drawn from National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the U.S. CDC, the WHO, UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Lagos to complete the setting up of the centre. They will be joined by the other personnel from Lagos State government and the federal hospitals in the Lagos area as well as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control."
He continued: "I have also appointed a Director of Communication and Community Mobilization who will be based in Lagos.
"We are embarking on recruiting additional health personnel to strengthen the team who are currently managing the situation in Lagos.
"We are making an arrangement to procure isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all the states of the federation and the federal capital territory.
"We are also setting up a special team to provide counseling and psychological support to patients, identified contacts and their families.
"Within the week, I and the Minister of Information would be visiting Lagos State to assess the situation on ground."
He assured that government was working hard to ensure that the outbreak was contained.
The minister said that the Federal Government had already reached out to the United States Center for Disease Control to request the unapproved Ebola drug ZMapp, for the treatment of affected persons in Nigeria.
The government urged Nigerian doctors who have been on strike for the past seven weeks to call off the action, particularly since all their demands have been met.
The Ebola drug was administered on Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, two American aid workers, who left Liberia for the United States who were gravely ill, as a result of infection with the Ebola virus in Liberia.
Both aid workers had shown improvement after taking the drug produced by a San Diego company, which had three doses of an experimental Ebola medicine that showed promise in monkeys but had never been tested in humans.
The minister stressed personal hygiene, saying, "When you don't need to give handshake please don't, wash your hands and use hand sanitizer as often as you can in the interest of public health."
He corrected the impression that everyone is meant to wear hand gloves, saying only health personnel and immigration officers are most vulnerable.
He said: "The general public does not need hand gloves. Health personnel are the most vulnerable and they change the gloves regularly and do not take them home. Also those at immigration points are advised to wear gloves and to change regularly. The Ebola organism is weak outside the body, so frequent washing of hands and using hand sanitizer is advisable. Don't try to form your own liquid."
He also advised families of affected persons not to share the same bed sheets, pillowcases and towels, as they stand a great risk of contacting the virus through bodily fluid. The disease, according to him, is both contagious and infectious. "If you are close to an affected person you can contact it via sneezing, coughing as they pass out droplets."
According to him, the virus is not infectious during incubation period, and that in five days it would make 21days since the late Patrick Sawyer came into the country, and only then would those exposed to him be confirmed to be free or have the disease.
On the issue of whether the constitution backs cases being quarantined, Chukwu said: "The constitution provides that government has the right to quarantine anybody suspected to have Ebola in the interest of public health."
Maku on his part advised Nigerians to be wary of quacks who would want to take advantage of the situation. He said: "Any substance or drug that has not been proven and announced by the Ministry of Health or NAFDAC is not a cure, ignore it."
The minister advised unsuspecting Nigerians not to be hoodwinked by unpatriotic Nigerians who might want to cash in on the existing uncertainty and desperation to swindle them, citing a case of the claim that bitter cola nut is an antidote to Ebola.
On another occasion, Chukwu faulted a report that an unnamed doctor that treated Sawyer is dead.
The minister, who spoke when he appeared before the Mr. Ndudi Elumelu-led members of the House of Representatives Committee on Health at the National Assembly complex urged the media to desist from spreading falsehood in the interest of the citizenry.
The minister said under the communication strategy put in place by the presidency, his office remained the only authority that could speak on the dreaded disease.
The minister disclosed that stringent measures had been put in place to ensure the screening of corpses moved into the country from abroad.
Though he admitted that a study carried out years ago in the United States (U.S.) by Prof. Maurice Iwu shows promising signs that it could cure the virus, such findings could not be said to be considered conclusive since it was not taken to its logical end.
The Head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Abdulsalami Nasidi, who was with the minister disclosed that there were 70 registered contacts with the diseased Liberian Ebola victim, adding that of the figure 39 persons were hospital contacts while 22 others were airport contacts.
The head of ports health services, Dr Sani Gwarzo, who disclosed that there were 68 entry points in the country, warned against the closure of the country's borders.
Stating that his office in conjunction with other stakeholders had put in place measures to stem the spread of the virus through the use of tracking devices, he explained that keeping the borders open would help avert a situation whereby his outfit would not be able to track those who exploit unconventional routes to enter the country.
Besides, the Lagos State government has promised to give life insurance cover to doctors and other health professionals who volunteer to work with experts monitoring and testing suspected cases of the Ebola Virus Disease.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, who disclosed this in Lagos yesterday, said the government was facing a shortage of experts, doctors and health workers that were needed to attend to those that had been infected and those that were going to be isolated for monitoring.
According to Idris, the state government would be providing life insurance cover for any doctor, nurse and any other expert who wants to work with isolated patients, adding that the health sector needs more hands, "because we have moved from the stage of primary contacts to secondary contacts."
Idris said: "We are tracing all the people that had contact not just with Sawyer, but those that had contacts with the health workers and others that have died. We have identified 27 secondary contacts already, we are tracing the addresses of others.
"It is a tedious task, because we will also be taking their blood samples for testing and we will be monitoring them.
"We are appealing to the doctors on strike to resume work and set aside their grievances. No doubt this situation is a dire emergency and our health professionals must recognise that.
"It will be morally unjustifiable for us to call for help from the international community if our own experts and doctors are not working."
Idris said it would also be evacuating tuberculosis patients receiving treatment at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Yaba to another hospital to accommodate more suspected and isolated cases.
"The TB patients at Mainland hospital were protesting this morning but we appealed to them, that if they stay there they may be exposed and get infected.
"If we need to evacuate any hospital to ensure that we contain this disease, we will do it. If we have to take suspected cases to LASUTH, we will do it. If we need to take decisions that will be inconvenient for some people but beneficial to the larger population, we will do it. Ebola is a highly infectious disease. We will do it to contain it," he said.
Already, intending pilgrims from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia may have to wait as the Saudi authorities may have suspended issuance of visa to them.
A patient suspected to be infected with the EVD in a recent business trip to Sierra Leone was confirmed dead in Jeddah, the Saudi capital yesterday.
The infection was confirmed by the Saudi authorities and World Health Organisation (WHO) laboratories after the test samples of the victim certified EVD symptoms of "viral hemorrhagic fever".
The Saudi Health Ministry stated it was working to trace the man travel's route and identify those he had contact with.
Upon this, Saudi kingdom has suspended pilgrimage visas from West African countries as way to check possible spread of the deadly disease.
EVD, according to WHO, has so far claimed about 900 people in the West African sub region, representing 60 per cent casualty of the virus in the world.
Read more: http://allafrica.com/stories/201408070412.html?viewall=1#ixzz39hIlzAbB
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