The Lagos State Government said on Monday
that it had identified no fewer than 59 people
who had contacts with Mr Patrick Sawyer, the
Liberian who died of Ebola Virus in the state.
Dr Jide Idris, the Commissioner for Health,
said at a news conference in Ikeja that the
contact tracing became imperative to
ascertain any possible transmission of the
virus by the victim.
Idris said the identified contacts comprised
44 hospital and 15 airport contacts, including
the Nigerian Ambassador to Liberia.
He said 20 of the contacts had been screened
and that none of them had so far been found
to be infected with the virus.
The commissioner, however, said the
contacts did not include those he might have
been with on his flight to Nigeria on July 20,
as the airline had yet to release the
passenger manifest for investigation.
“The airline manifest has not been provided
by the airline as at the time of this report and
therefore, the precise number of passenger
contacts is yet to be ascertained, especially as
two flights were involved (Monrovia-Lome
and Lome-Lagos).”
The commissioner urged Nigerians not to
entertain fears about Sawyer`s case as the
state and Federal Governments were doing
everything possible to prevent any risk to the
country.
Idris said that the deceased’s body had been
decontaminated, using 10 per cent sodium
hypochlorite and cremated with the
permission of the Government of Liberia.
“A cremation urn has been prepared for
dispatch to the family. The vehicle containing
the remains have also been decontaminated
while the hospital in which he died on July 25
has been demobilised .”
Idris said that the state Ministry of Health had
designated an isolation ward at the Infectious
Disease Hospital, Yaba, for case
management, adding three other centres
were under way.
The commissioner urged residents to report
people with abnormal cases of bleeding and
fever to the appropriate authorities for
intervention, as high fever with bleeding from
all body openings were symptoms of the
disease.
Idris also urged residents to always keep
their environments clean and maintain good
personal hygiene as Ebola virus spreads
easily in dirty environments.
Also speaking, Prof. Abdul-Salami Nasidi, the
Director, National Centre for Disease Control
(NCDC) warned against the consumption of
bats and monkeys as these animals had been
established to be the original sources of
Ebola.
“This is time for those bat-eating and
monkey-eating communities to be careful
now. Ebola started from the eating of
Chimpanzees. How the virus got to the
monkey, nobody knows yet.
“But this is the time to be careful about the
eating of monkeys and bats. The Ebola threat
is high in West Africa and people should start
taking precautions.”
In a remark, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, the
President of the Nigerian Academy of
Science, also warned Nigerians against the
unsupervised burial of people who died from
suspected Ebola case.
He said 40 per cent of cases in high risk
countries were transmitted from victims`
bodies, stressing that an Ebola corpse was
deadlier the patient.
On he part, Mrs Yewande Adeshina, the
Special Adviser to the Governor on Public
Health, urged traditional healers to
collaborate with the government in checking
Ebola threats by reporting suspicious cases
for the right intervention. (NAN)
