The ravaging Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) might have begun taking its deadly toll on neighbouring Ghana, as the country, on Friday, appeared to have recorded its first death from the outbreak.
This is just as Nigerians have resorted to begging the US President, Barack Obama, to release an experimental antidote that has been used to treat the two Americans, who had contracted the dreaded virus.
Reports from the Ghanaian capital, Accra, say a Burkinabe, who had fever and bled from his nose and ears, was rushed to a hospital known as Bawku Presby, in the Upper East Region area of the country, on Friday afternoon.
The man was said to have complained of fever while in Burkina Faso, and was taken to a hospital for treatment in that country, but saw no improvement in his condition.
His relatives then decided to transport him across the common border between Burkina Faso and Ghana’s Upper East region, for proper care, but reportedly lost him on the way.
According to Ghanaian media, the Medical Director at the hospital, Dr. Joseph Yaw Manu, confirmed that the man had died at the time he was brought in, saying: “What scared me most as a medical doctor was that he was bleeding from his ears and nose – symptoms of Ebola.”
On Dr. Manu’s orders, blood samples from the deceased were taken to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) at the University of Ghana for testing.
If positive, this would be Ghana’s first confirmed case of the virus, which has killed at least 961 people in the West African sub-region out of the 1,779 total reported cases.
Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are among the hardest hit countries.
The corpse has since been taken to a town called Sankanduri in Burkina Faso for burial.
Nigerians pleading with Obama have done so following the refusal of the United States Government to heed the plea from the Federal Government over the outbreak of the deadly virus.
An infected nurse, who is reportedly among those quarantined at Mainland Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, started the call with an SOS (Save Our Soul) message to relevant authorities to help prevail on the American president, to assist Nigeria out of the embarrassing situation by sending the experimental drugs to Nigeria to assist in the treatment of the EVD.
“We want to engage the social media; twitter, facebook and others to campaign from tomorrow (Saturday) morning, using the handle#GiveThemExperimentalDrugs, to draw attention to the plight of people already down with the virus.
“It is inhuman to keep people, and wait for them to die,” a source said, stating further that, “all I ask of you is that we launch a massive online campaign, using the news and social media to demand that President Obama releases the experimental drugs used in managing the American Ebola patients to the Nigerian government.”
Source: Daily Newswatch
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