NIGERIA: HOW LAGOS NURSING MOTHER GOT INFECTED WITH EBOLA VIRUS - DOCTOR

A medical doctor has described how a nursing mother who is one of the confirmed cases of the Ebola virus in Lagos contracted the disease while attending her antenatal care at First Consultant Hospital in Obalende, Lagos where the first victim of Ebola virus in Nigeria, Patrick Sawyerr, died. The lady was confirmed to have the deadly disease after testing positive at the NNPC staff clinic on Muri Okunola street in the Victoria Island area of Lagos.

Speaking anonymously with Punch, the doctor said;
'The lady attended ante-natal at First Consultant prior to the arrival of the Liberian, Mr. Patrick Sawyer. She was delivered of her baby at the hospital after which she was discharged. A few weeks later, Mr. Sawyer came around and was attended to by health workers. He was first treated for malaria, then typhoid, before there was high index of suspicion. He tested positive for Ebola and died. Then the woman, who gave birth at the hospital came back to the hospital for her baby’s immunization. The nurses who attended to Sawyer also attended to her. When she visited the place again last week, she discovered the place had been shut down for proper fumigation as a means of control against Ebola.” he said. Continue...

Seeing that the hospital has been shut down, the lady who had started showing signs of fever proceeded to the NNPC staff clinic which was close by.
'She was first treated for Malaria. However, after some medical tests, there was a high suspicion of Ebola haemorrhagic fever. On Friday, the Lagos State’s emergency response team on Ebola virus came around and took her to the Infectious Diseases Hospital,” he added.

The management of the hospital after confirming she had the deadly virus immediately shut down the hospital indefinitely.


Confirming the doctor's report, the Medical Officer of Health, Iru-Victoria Island Local Council Development Area, Dr. Wale Akeredolu, said the woman's baby has been quarantined and is under surveillance
“The baby has also been quarantined to see if after the incubation period of two to 21 days, she would manifest the symptoms of Ebola.” he said

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NIGERIA: ANOTHER SUSPECTED CASE OF EBOLA VIRUS REPORTED IN LAGOS

Just seven days after Mr. Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian and US citizen, died in a private hospital in Lagos, Nigeria, one of the personnel, who helped him out of the aircraft on his arrival in Lagos, has shown signs of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

The latest victim who has not yet been named was said to have helped the late Sawyer and was among the 59 persons the Federal Government and the Lagos State Government registered to have had contact with the late Sawyer immediately on his arrival in Nigeria on Sunday, July 20.

Early symptoms of EVD include fever, headache, chills, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, headache and joint pains, while later symptoms include bleeding from the eyes, ears nose, and the mouth as well as the rectum, eye swelling, swelling of the genitals and rashes all over the body that often contain blood. It could progress to coma, shock and death.

As at four days after Sawyer’s death in Nigeria, precisely, Monday, July 27, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said 20 of the 59 people registered to have had contact with Sawyer had been physically screened. He said 50 per cent of these 20 people had type one contact with Sawyer and 50 per cent had type two contact.

Explaining this terminol­ogy, the Director, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Abdulsalam Nasidi, said type one contact means those who had direct one-on-one contact with the late Sawyer, while type two contact refers to those that had contact with those who had direct contact with Saw­yer.

However, he said the committee working on the Ebola virus disease emergency was following the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline which recommended that only persons who showed signs of the EVD symptoms should be screened.

Efforts to get confirma­tion about the latest on the person showing signs of the EVD from Nasidi failed. A text message to his phone asking for confirmation was not responded to.

…No fresh case in Lagos –LASG

Lagos State Govern­ment yesterday, said no fresh case of the dreaded Ebola Vi­rus Disease has been found in the state or any part of the country.

According to the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr. (Mrs.) Ye­wande Adeshina, none of the persons said to have come in contact with the late Libe­rian victim of the Ebola Vi­rus Disease had manifested unusual body temperature or any other symptom of the dreaded virus.

She explained that all the 59 persons, who had close contact with the deceased Liberian in Nigeria were hale and hearty and had not exhibited any unusual symptoms, just as there had been no case of the dreaded disease from the country’s

borders.

Also, the Commissioner for Information, Lateef Ibirogba, has advised the citizenry to be wary of the activities of fraudsters, who were making spurious claims about their ability to provide cure for the Ebola Virus Disease, urging them to always contact health providers to report unusual feelings noticed.

He cautioned people to desist from sending panicky text messages round about the Ebola disease that could heighten tension and create anxiety.

He also advised those who wanted to make cheap money from the case to de­sist from their strange claims of cure for the disease or risk the wrath of the law, as only medical solutions were known to be appropriate for the disease.

He reminded residents of the state to make use of the emergency phone numbers- 08023169485, 08033086660, 08033065303, 08055281442 and 08055329229 provided to contact health authorities in case anyone with observed symptoms of the Ebola disease was noticed.

He also advised residents to observe the highest level of personal environmental hygiene, adding that they should visit hospitals or primary health centres nearest to them to report strange feelings noticed.

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LAGOS GOVERNMENT LOCATES 59 CONTACTS WITH DEAD LIBERIAN VICTIM

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)

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