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• Nigerian traveller in Canada shows signs of ebola
• How outbreak exposes division among NMA members
There are indications that some persons who might have had contact with the late Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who brought the virus may be avoiding calls to turn in themselves for checks and further screening of their status of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
THISDAY investigation revealed that most of the persons who flew the Asky Airlines from Lome to Lagos had been reluctant to come up for test and contact tracing, a situation that has compounded the work of the Federal Ministry of Health and officials of Lagos State government.
This is as the World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday in Geneva, Switzerland, alerted that the virus was spreading as Nigeria now has between 9 to 13 cases.
Confirming the figures, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, informed THISDAY that “we have 9 confirmed cases out of which 7 are alive and receiving treatment and 2 are dead including the index case.”
On the fears that persons who had contact with the late Sawyer may be hiding, Chukwu explained that “regarding contact tracing, we know the whereabouts of all primary contacts.”
The minister further stated that “secondary contacts are much more in number and knowing about them depends on information given by the primary contact.”
“And there is no way anywhere in the world, one can be totally sure that one had captured them all in the data. Currently, 139 contacts have been placed under surveillance,” Chukwu stressed.
Also, the Project Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Prof. Andullraman Nasidi, has denied reports that Ebola patients under quarantine had been abandoned.
Asked whether the new life insurance policy offered by the Federal Government to all health experts and workers who intervene in assisting in the treatment of patients has encourage medical experts to lend support, Nasidi told THISDAY that “yes, it has increase and the response has been very encouraging.”
Meanwhile, the Director of Port Health Service (PHS), Dr. Sani Gwarzo, has debunked claims that the Seme border is still loose to prevent Ebola patients in endemic countries from entering Nigeria.
Gwarzo, who spoke to THISDAY in a telephone interview said there about 40 staff at the Seme border meant to stop and screen all those coming into Nigeria through that border.
The PHS director explained that there were concerted efforts to ensure all those entering and leaving the country are properly screened.
However, a patient traveling from Nigeria, who showed symptoms of fever and flu - possible signs of Ebola - was put in isolation in a Toronto-area hospital, Canadian health officials said.
Nigeria is one of several countries in West Africa that has had confirmed cases of Ebola, in the world's largest ever outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic fever that has seen 961 deaths and nearly 1,800 people infected since the beginning of the year.
The unnamed male patient was being treated at the William Osler Health System's Brampton Civic Hospital in a suburb of Toronto.
“As a precautionary measure, Osler put in heightened infection control measures in the emergency department including isolating the patient,” the hospital said in a statement, released late on Friday. Hospital doctors “are working closely” with public health officials "to confirm a diagnosis."
In addition to quarantining the patient, the hospital said it enacted other strict precautionary measures.
“To date, there are no confirmed cases of Ebola in Ontario and the risk to Ontarians remains very low,” said Graham Pollett, the province's Interim Chief Medical Officer of Health.
He also said Ontario's health care system “is prepared to respond should an individual arrive with symptoms that could suggest a disease, such as Ebola.”
He cautioned that initial Ebola symptoms “are similar to many more common diseases,” adding that healthcare providers “have been advised to be on heightened alert for Ebola cases.”
Another senior Ontario health official, Eric Hoskins, said in a statement that with the “experience and lessons learned from the SARS epidemic, our hospitals have sophisticated infection control systems and procedures ... and are fully equipped to deal with any potential cases of Ebola.”
The worst affected countries so far have been Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, but Nigeria currently has nine confirmed cases of Ebola.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday declared a national emergency several hours after the World Health Organisation called the epidemic a global health crisis.
Meanwhile, despite the US negative response to the call to have the experimental vaccine for the EVD, Zmapp, flown to the affected countries in Africa, an online appeal has begun to convince the United States Government of the need to reverse on their stand.
The United States President, Barack Obama, last Thursday dashed hopes when he said it was too early to distribute the drug, gotten from specially modified tobacco leaves, to Africa, rather, affected countries should focus on building a strong public infrastructure.
However, determined to get the US government to change its stand, a campaign has kicked off, with different people lending their voices to the call for the vaccine to be flown to Africa for the affected persons, to stem the casualty rate.
In an appeal published on USAfricaonline.com by one John Okiyi Kalu, a toxicologist and public policy issues contributor, he said the idea was to persuade.
Using one Obi Justina Ejelonu, a nurse with First Consultant Hospital, Obalende, as a case point for the need to release the vaccine, Kalu said the victim had only relocated to Lagos earlier this year to work at the hospital.
According to him, they were only alerted about her predicament when she posted it on a website (Igboville).
Her message reads: “I never contacted his fluids. I checked his vitals, helped him with his food because he was too weak. I basically touched where his hands touched and that is the only contact and not directly with his fluids.
“At a stage, he yanked off his infusion and we had blood everywhere on his bed but the ward maids took care of that and changed his linens with great precaution. Every patient is treated as high risk.
“Friends, up to our uniforms and all linens were burnt off. We are on surveillance and off work till 11th. Our samples have long been taken by WHO and so far we have been fine.”
Kalu said after her earlier message, she alongside 40 others are currently being quarantined at Mainland Hospital, Yaba.
He said: “She is still alive and spoke with me today on phone. But one of her fellow nurses has died. You can help save her life and that of about 40 others quarantined at Yaba, even though the situation looks hopeless.
“All I ask of you is that we launch a massive online campaign using the news and social media to demand that President Obama release the experimental drugs used in managing the American Ebola victims to the Nigerian government immediately.
“If we don’t do it, we will lose Nurse J and others. Obama already said he won’t release the drugs to Africans but given that American government is public opinion driven, we can make him change his mind if we try”.
As part of efforts to contain EVD, the Chairman of Mushin Local Government, Hon Olatunde Adepitan, has appealed to the residents of his area to take the deadly Ebola virus as real and deadly.
Speaking through the Council Manager, Mr. Rasaq Oladeji, at the public enlightenment campaign on the danger posed by Ebola to Nigerians, he stressed the need for the residents to take precautionary measures on issues that can promote the attack and spread of the virus.
Mushin has been mentioned as one of the local governments where the people that had contact with the effected person reside. These therefore call for caution and vigilance.
It also emerged that following the Ebola outbreak, it has exposed the division and acrimony that have characterised the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in recent weeks, THISDAY has learnt.
With the increased number of Nigerians who have been infected as a result of late Patrick Sawyer visit to Nigeria, hopes were raised about the possibility of the one month doctors' strike being called off.
As a fallout of the logjam over the decision to suspend the one month strike or maintain the status quo in order to address the Ebola outbreak, President of NMA, Dr. Kayode Obembe, Thursday resigned from his post, amid controversy which trailed the decision.
Obembe, who was not available for confirmation, however wrote to affiliates organs of the NMA resigning his post as President. He was said to be in full support for the call-off of the strike given the Ebola outbreak, a position that did not go down well most of the NMA executives, ex-officials and senior members of the association.
But few hours after Obembe’s letter, the NMA’s Secretary General, Adewunmi Anayaki, in a dramatic twist allegedly forward a letter to the affiliate organs asking them to ignore Obembe's resignation.
Commenting on the resignation, a doctor who did not want his name in print stated that “he has to resign because he will not enjoy the respect of other doctors in the country. The controversy of the suspension of the strike has put him in bad light with his executives and other stakeholders in the NMA and therefore, he has to resign to save his face.”
However, Niger State Government has established three containment centres and an Ebola quarantine centre as part of measures to check the spread of the virus.
The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mallam Danladi Ndayebo, who made this known to journalists in Minna said the state Government has already commenced checking of movement of persons across its border.
Ndayebo said the state government would be working in collaboration with the Nigeria Immigration Service to check the movement of persons across its border to avoid the spread of the virus to the state, adding that the state shares borders with Benin Republic.
He further disclosed that the state governor has constituted a six-man committee made up of the Commissioner of Health, Commissioner of Information, Commissioner of Livestock and Fisheries, Commissioner of Water Resources, Commissioner of Planning and the Director General of the State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS (SACA).
Source: Thisday
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