First Consultants Medical Centre Limited, the hospital where 40 year old Liberian, Patrick Sawyer died of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Lagos, yesterday revealed how it prevented the disease from spreading to parts of the country.
The disease which was officially confirmed in Lagos last week killed the Liberian national who flew into the country from Monrovia via Lome (Togo) last week.
In a statement signed by the Chief Consultant and Medical Director, Dr. B.N. Ohiaeri and the Senior Consultant and Endocrinologist, Dr. A.S. Adadevoh and obtained by THISDAY, the hospital located at Ikoyi Road, Obalende, Lagos, said its effort to keep the patient confined in the hospital, against intense pressure from his organisation to release him to attend an important assignment in Calabar, Cross River State, saved the nation from an imminent spread of the highly infectious disease.
"We refused for him to be let out of the hospital in spite of the intense pressure, as we were told that he was a senior ECOWAS official and had an important role to play at the ECOWAS convention in Calabar," the hospital said.
"We hope that by our action of preventing this gentleman from being extracted from our hospital and travelling to Calabar, we have been able to prevent the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria," the statement added.
Recounting the genesis of the issue that rapidly became a national emergency, the hospital statement explained that "a 40-year-old gentleman came into the hospital with symptoms suggestive of malaria (fever, headache and extreme weakness) on Sunday night, July 20, 2014.
"He was fully conscious and gave us his clinical history and told us he is a senior diplomat from Liberia. Laboratory investigation confirmed malaria, while other tests for HIV, Hepatitis B and C were negative. He was admitted and treatment commenced.
"However, due to the fact that he was not responding to treatment but rather was developing haemorrhagic symptoms, we further questioned him. He denied having been in contact with any person with EVD at home, in any hospital or at any burial. In spite of this denial, we decided to conduct further tests for possible infectious haemorrhagic disease especially EVD, based on the fact that he was a Liberian citizen and the recent outbreak of the disease in that country," the hospital stated.
The Consultants Medical Centre Limited said it immediately isolated and quarantined the patient, commenced barrier nursing and simultaneously contacted the Lagos State Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Health to enquire where further laboratory tests could be performed.
According to the hospital, initial test result from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), indicated a signal of possible EVD, but required confirmation.
"We then took steps to reach out to senior officials in the office of the Secretary of Health of the United States of America, who promptly assisted us with the contacts of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Laboratory Centre in Senegal.
"Working jointly with the state, federal agencies and international agencies, we were able to obtain confirmation that the patient was infected with the EVD (Zaire Strain) and the gentleman subsequently died on Friday, July 25, at 6.50 am.”
The hospital explained that orderly temporary shut down of the hospital with immediate evacuation of in-house patients followed as well as professional removal of the body and its incineration under WHO guidelines, witnessed by all appropriate agencies.
It said that in keeping with the WHO guidelines, the hospital is shut down briefly as full decontamination exercise is currently in progress and the reopening of the hospital will also be in accordance with WHO guidelines.
Source: Thisday
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