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Tag: Ebola

  • Bayelsa denies rumoured cases of Ebola

    Bayelsa denies rumoured cases of Ebola

    •Urges residents to be calm

    Bayelsa State government denied yesterday rumours that the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has been recorded in parts of the state.

    The Commissioner for Health and Head of Ebola Task Force, Dr. Ayebatonye Owei, said there was no truth in the speculations.

    He was reacting to rumours that three EVD cases were recorded at the weekend at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH), Okolobiri.

    It was speculated that some of the persons, who had contacts with the deceased doctor in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, headed for Bayelsa State.

    Residents have been panicking since cases of Ebola were confirmed in Port Harcourt.

    But Owei said: “There is no Ebola case in Bayelsa.”

    He described the speculations as false.

    Governor Seriake Dickson also urged the people not to panic, saying proactive measures had been put in place to check the spread of the disease.

    The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson,  appealed for calm because of the proximity of Bayelsa to Rivers State.

    “Government has created 103 surveillance centres in the local governments as part of measures to curtail the spread of the Ebola virus. People have been placed on alert to check its spread,” the governor said.

    He stressed the need for the indigenes to imbibe the culture of hygiene, noting that government supported the 18-member task force it set up to fight Ebola.

    Dickson said: “Distribution of protective materials, such as sanitisers, body gears and hand gloves are ongoing and major isolation centres have  been set up at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa and other smaller units across the state for the containment of the virus.

    “We hail the Federal Government’s decision on the postponement of the resumption date of both public and private schools.

    “The measure will assist in checking the spread of the disease, as it is likely to spread through crowded places, such as educational institutions, churches and markets.”

     

     

  • Six certified Ebola-free in Enugu

    Six certified Ebola-free in Enugu

    Six people, who had contact with the nurse who escaped from Lagos to Enugu, have been certified free of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    Health Commissioner Dr George Eze spoke yesterday at the opening ceremony of a two-week certificate course organised by the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu in collaboration with the West African College of Nursing at Nondon Hotel, Enugu.

    The nurse had contact with the late Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, who brought Ebola to the country.

    She sneaked out of the quarantine centre in Lagos to visit her family in Enugu.

    Eze, who was represented by the Director of Medical Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr Ndubuisi Ejeh, stressed the need for the people to keep their environment clean.

     

     

    He warned that there was need to continue the sensitization on the dreaded Ebola virus, saying that presently it has no known cure.

    He advised people to ensure that they washed their hands after handshakes or as they retire home.

    The Medical Director of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu Dr. Jojo Onwukwe said they have continued with the culture of organising in-house seminars and workshops, adding that the development had so far repositioned the members of staff towards effective service delivery.

    Onwukwe said it was no longer arguable that their staff welfare had been given unprecedented attention going by the huge “ongoing constructions in the hospital”.

    He said: “Since the inception of my assumption of office, we have reiterated our vision and mission statement for Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, New Haven Enugu, not only in words, but in all actions. The events that have unfolded in the past year are enough evidence of our commitment in lifting this institution to an olympian height.

    “Being the first Eastern Neuropsychiatric Hospital in the country long before some of these other hospitals, we have a prestigious pedigree respected all over the country. Indeed, our products are our pride: properly tutored, well-baked, sound and knowledgeable, with 12 consultants, 24 readers and more than 315 senior nurses as well as students undergoing training in this hospital.”

    Delivering his inaugural lecture entitled Psychiatry and Mental Health in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects, for the week, Abia  State governor, Theodore Orji, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Nkpa Agu Nkpa disclosed that his administration had given priority to the health sector.

    Orji pointed out that there was need to properly equip the psychiatric health providers as the work they do is challenging.

    He said that no nation can effectively manage mental ill health except by managing well first the service providers.

    Orji therefore advised governments at all levels to place treatment of mental illness on top priority.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • NLC to Fed Govt: fight Boko Haram as Ebola

    NLC to Fed Govt: fight Boko Haram as Ebola

    The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdul Waheed Omar, yesterday urged the Federal Government to fight the Boko Haram insurgency with the vigour it is fighting the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    He spoke in Kaduna at  the opening of a one-day sensitisation workshop on the prevention of Ebola, organised by National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN).

    Omar noted that the rapid response by the Federal Government to stop the spread of the Ebola virus was commendable, adding:  “I think if Federal Government should fight Boko Haram the way it is fighting Ebola, the insurgency would have ended.

    “I enjoin the government to be as proactive to Boko Haram as it has done to Ebola.”

    The President and General-Secretary of NUTGTWN, Comrade Oladele Hunsu and Comrade Issa Aremu, said there was need for continuous enlightenment and sensitisation of the Ebola virus.

    Aremu said the essence of the workshop was to enlighten members on the disease and how to prevent it.

    He said: “As deadly as the Ebola virus disease is, we should not forget there are other diseases, such as malaria, polio and cholera, which have cure but are still rampant.

    “Thus, as we battle the deadly Ebola virus disease, we should do more with other diseases with known treatment/prevention. It is all about good health care and good governance.

    “We laud the resolution of the crisis in the health sector, which led to the calling off of the strike by members of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA). We are also impressed that the Federal Government has withdrawn the sack order given to the doctors.

    “The truth is that we cannot resolve the health challenges, particularly the threat posed by the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), if we have a crisis in the health sector.

    “Government must provide health workers with the tools, including insurance covers, to deal with the Ebola virus.”

    Delivering a paper titled: “Ebola Virus Disease: What we need to know”, Dr. Sani Gwarzo, a director, Port Health Services, Federal Ministry of Health, said the era of sensitisation was over, adding that action should be taken to prevent the deadly virus.

    Gwarzo, who is also a member of the Incident Management Committee on the Ebola virus disease, said the spread of the disease started in 1976 as rural Ebola, adding that it killed a lot of animals and human beings in Central Africa.

    He allayed the fears of most Nigerians that suffering from acute malaria fever did not necessarily mean a symptom of Ebola, but warned that persons suffering from such fever should keep away from the work place till recovery.

    Gwarzo said the rampaging disease is known as urban Ebola, urging the leadership of the labour union to put in place a policy, work plan as well as a response team to checkmate the spread of Ebola, particularly in their immediate environment.

     

  • Ezekwesili demands more from journalists in Chibok girls’ affair

    Ezekwesili demands more from journalists in Chibok girls’ affair

    Former Minister of Education and leader of the ‘Bring back our girls’ group, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has appealed to the media to do more in the campaign to rescue the 219 girls abducted from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, who are still missing.

    Mrs Ezekwesili, who led a 16-member delegation of the group to Vintage Press Ltd, Lagos, publishers of The Nation, said it was ironic that after 140 days the girls were discovered missing, “we are not any closer to rescuing them than we were on April 30 when we first came out to demand action on the matter.”

    She acknowledged the role of the media in creating awareness about the issue and thanked the management and workers of Vintage Press Ltd for supporting the campaign, by reminding the readers that there are indeed girls missing in Nigeria.

    But Dr. Ezekwesili said the time had come for the media to go beyond reporting the issue only when it is convenient, adding that they should take ownership of the campaign.

    She said the group had succeeded in creating awareness and compelling the government to acknowledge that the girls are indeed missing, but that there is an urgent need for action by the authorities to search for and rescue the girls, because so far, the impression being given by the government is that it has lost the initiative.

    The ex-Minister of Education said it was the responsibility of the media to keep government officials on their toes by remaining focused on the issue to engender public debate.

    She said every newspaper should have a terrorism desk because “the kind of thing happening now cannot be handled by a general desk.”

    Mrs. Ezekwesili noted that “there are many options open to the government. But as we speak, we don’t know the option the government is taking and time is running out.”

    She said the advocacy group is invariably being asked to provide the solution towards cracking the Chibok girls case.

    According to her, the buck stops at the table of government and that if Nigerians have to rely on a mere citizens advocacy group to solve the Chibok girls mystery, then there would be no need for government.

    The group said journalists have the privilege of meeting and “it is time you engaged them effectively” to get the girls back safely.

    It noted that since the ‘Bring back our girls’ campaign started, the number of attacks in the communities around Chibok had escalated.

    Dr. Ezekwesili said it is disheartening that despite the awareness created, the Federal Government has not deemed it necessary to take ownership of the crisis and safeguard the area, adding that “this is a cause for worry.”

    She said it was also disheartening that almost everyone had moved on, particularly with the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic.

    She said ironically, the international community believed that it is a Nigerian problem, which should be tackled by Nigerians.

    The leader of the “Bring back our girls” campaigners recalled that the Chibok girls were abducted about midnight on April 14, and that there was a bomb blast on the same day in Abuja.

    She recalled how she got involved in the matter. “I had been particularly distressed by the series of bomb blasts in Abuja, not because it was happening in the capital, but because it seemed as if Nigerians had resigned everything to fate and were literarily waiting for the next bomb blast to happen.

    “As some of you, who are actively engaged in the social media would attest, I am very much into the social media. The reason being that I use that space to engage on the matter of public policy; one of the things I wanted to do on leaving the World Bank was to teach public policy — a couple of the universities wanted me to do that – but I could not do that because my assignments involved a lot of travels.

    “I found it bizarre that the bomb blasts kept going off, but after each one, Nigerians simply moved on.” Dr. Ezekwesili said citizens do have a voice and this ought to be ventilated when things are going wrong.

    “It was kind of strange. So, when the Abuja one of April 14 happened, it dawned on me that it is our responsibility as citizens to participate in the conversation of what is going on in the country. On my Twitter account, I tweeted and said, if you are a citizen and have an idea on how to end terrorism, can you tweet at me? And then, people began to tweet at me; it was almost as if they have been waiting for that kind of prompting. People began to tweet at me, and at the end of the day over 500 tweets had been sent my way, detailing their ideas to end terrorism.”

    She added that it was not until the next day, by 1pm, that she got the news through the social media that some hundred and something girls had been abducted in a city in Borno State.

    “Until the 17th, there was no news from anybody. It was in the evening of the 17th that the military responded that there had been an abduction of girls in Borno, but that they had rescued them. But two days after, it was recanted.”

    According to Mrs. Ezekwesili, it was actually on April 23, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at a UNESCO event inaugurating Port Harcourt as the World Book Capital that the ‘Bring back our girls campaign’ formally took shape.

    At the event, she resolved, with a couple of her associates, to seize the opportunity to ask the audience to stand up for a few minutes for the Chibok girls because for about 10 days then they had been missing and no word on them.

    “But, as it turned out, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who was part of the event, made the Chibok girls a sizeable part of his speech. That was how the process that culminated in the ‘Bring back our girls’ campaign started.”

    She said there is no iota of truth in the allegation that the campaign is politically-motivated.

  • ‘Barbers, others can spread Ebola’

    The Federal Government has been called upon to further sensitise market leaders; hairstylists and barbers’ on the  spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    According to the Director, Public Affairs and Communication, Pfizer, Mrs Margaret Olele, the use of towel and other tools by these service providers could be sources of transmitting the EVD.

    She said it was saddening that airport workers; toll gate attendants and transport workers were yet to be fully equipped against Ebola.

    Mrs Olele said: “At the airports, security agents are still checking people’s suitcases with their bare hands. I witnessed this last week when I escorted my son to the airport. I had to give the policeman a pair of spare gloves (I carry them around these days.) Temperatures are checked; but the greater danger of transmitting the disease by these work-forces is real.

    “At Lekki toll gate, I observed a poor gentleman oblivious of the risk of EVD had no gloves on and had received monies from countless persons. At the Salon in Victoria Garden City (VGC), Lagos, workers are doing pedicure with bare hands, while well fed and self content women with the most expensive phones, rings and designer bags used wet towels already used by others. What will it cost to bring personal towels from their houses eludes me.”

  • Bayelsa denies rumoured cases of Ebola

    •Residents urged to be calm

    Bayelsa State government denied yesterday rumours that the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) had been recorded in parts of the state.

    The Commissioner for Health and Head of Ebola Task Force, Dr. Ayebatonye Owei, said there was no truth in the speculations.

    He was reacting to rumours that three EVD cases were recorded at the weekend at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH), Okolobiri.

    It was speculated that some of the persons, who had contacts with the deceased doctor in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, headed for Bayelsa State.

    Residents have been panicking since cases of Ebola were confirmed in Port Harcourt.

    But Owei said: “There is no Ebola case in Bayelsa.”

    He described the speculations as false.

    Governor Seriake Dickson also urged the people not to panic, saying proactive measures had been put in place to check the spread of the disease.

    The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson,  appealed for calm because of the proximity of Bayelsa to Rivers State.

    “Government has created 103 surveillance centres in the local governments as part of measures to curtail the spread of the Ebola virus. People have been placed on the alert to check its spread,” the governor said.

    He stressed the need for the indigenes to imbibe the culture of hygiene, noting that government supported the 18-member task force set up to fight Ebola.

    Dickson said: “Distribution of protective materials, such as sanitisers, body gears and hand gloves are ongoing and major isolation centres have  been set up at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa and other smaller units across the state for the containment of the virus.

    “We hail the Federal Government’s decision on the postponement of the resumption date of both public and private schools.

    “The measure will assist in checking the spread of the disease, as it is likely to spread through crowded places, such as educational institutions, churches and markets.”

  • Ebola won’t stop Ahmed Musa

    Ebola won’t stop Ahmed Musa

    •Arrives Nigeria today

    Ahmed Musa has told fricanFootball.com he will fly into Nigeria today ahead of this weekend’s AFCON qualifier against Congo despite his fears over the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in the country.

    Nigeria host Congo in Calabar on Saturday with the visiting team already expressed their fears about Ebola in Nigeria. But CSKA Moscow forward Ahmed Musa has insisted Ebola cannot stop him from representing Nigeria.

    “The way we hear the news of Ebola is scary, but it can’t stop me from coming to Nigeria to represent my fatherland,” Ahmed Musa told AfricanFootball.com.

    “I am not scared of coming to Nigeria. I am fully ready to hit Nigeria on Tuesday ahead of the game. I will just take the necessary precautions as I have been hearing about Ebola in the country.”

    Over the weekend, Ahmed Musa showed he has returned to top form when he scored a brace for Russian champions CSKA in a 6-0 thrashing of FC Rostov. He scored twice against Argentina at the World Cup in Brazil in June.

  • Council gets Ebola committee

    THE Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State has inaugurated a nine-member committee on the prevention of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    A statement by the local government’s Director of Information, Mrs Akintunde Taiwo, said the committee was set up at a meeting of the council’s Finance and General Purpose Committee.

    She quoted the council’s Chairman Dele Soluade as saying Ebola is a reality and a dreadful disease that should be curtailed.

    Soluade urged the committee to examine how to educate the residents on the dangers of the disease, especially its prevention.

    He advised the people not to panic but to report suspected cases to the nearest health centres.

    The Supervisor for Medical and Health Services, who chairs the committee, Chief Sikiru Adesina, promised that the committee would do its job diligenly.

  • Ebola: More knocks for govt over isolation centre

    Some residents of Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are still protesting the establishment of Ebola screening and isolation centre in Kuje General Hospital.

    While speaking with our correspondent on the matter, the Chief of Paseli community, Mr. Usman Yusuf said the designation of the centre in Kuje is not to the best interest of the people, as it was located in a densely populated area of the town.

    “The decision by the Federal Government to establish Ebola treatment and isolation centre in Kuje General Hospital is unfair. This is because the hospital is in a strategic location where majority of the people live. Ebola is a disease that everybody is running away from. Why should the Minister of the FCT insist that such centre should be established in Kuje General Hospital?

    “Kuje has a vast land and several interior areas where such a centre could be established. The fund is available to construct structures for such treatment centres and I do not see any reason for the minister to insist that the centre should be in Kuje General Hospital,” he said.

    Mr. Yusuf said huge amount of money has been budgeted by the Federal Government to set up isolation centres across the country. The isolation centre should be set up in a secluded area of the council, not Kuje General Hospital, adding that it was unfair to set up such a centre in a crowded area of Kuje town.

    “This is unfair, except the minister wants to kill the whole inhabitants of Kuje. They should look for an interior area where nobody lives and set up such centre. Everything negative is pushed to Kuje such as the Maximum Security Prison, School for the Handicap and School for the Deaf and Dump. Now it is Ebola treatment centre,” he said.

    The youth leader of Kuje, Mr. Zaka Sunday, said establishing the Ebola treatment and isolation centre in Kuje is not a problem but locating it at the middle of the town was not to the interest the people. He added that the centre should be sited at the outskirts of the town where the risk of contacting the deadly disease will be minimal.

    “It is the decision of the Federal Government to site Ebola isolation centres across the country to tackle any possible outbreak of the disease. We can’t resist it. But our appeal to the Federal Government is that the centre should not be located at Kuje General Hospital where there is large number of people.

    “The Kuje General Hospital is the only government-owned hospital that we have and it is centrally located. There are residential houses around it and only a fence demarcates it with a school. So, if you are bringing Ebola screening and isolation centre here, you are telling us not to go to that hospital again.

    “The people are not really sensitised about the virus and nobody has come to Kuje to select key persons like the youth group, women group or the market women for sensitisation. We are appealing to the Minister of the FCT to take the isolation centre to a remote area where people are not living,” he said.

    In a related development, the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) has inaugurated a technical committee to tackle any possible outbreak of Ebola virus.

    This was consequent to the directive by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed to chairmen of the six area councils to set up committees to ensure that the dreaded virus did not spread.

    The chairman of the council, Hon. Micah Jiba told reporters that before the ministerial directive, the council had mapped out strategies to curb any possible outbreak, noting that the council had to be proactive considering the central location of the council.

    Jiba, who praised the media for the level of awareness created about the disease, also enjoined them to sustain the tempo until cure of the Ebola virus is found by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    The council boss also praised both the Federal Government and FCT Administration for what he described as “proactive steps” to address the scourge, even as he called on religious and traditional leaders to assist government in spreading the awareness campaigns which aim at curbing the spread of the virus.

    “I praise the media for the awareness created about the Ebola virus. I have a publication of one of the national dailies on Ebola virus. Through the media, we have known that routine cleaning and disinfection of animal houses with sodium hypochlorite (bleach) or other detergents are effective in inhibiting the virus.

    “Restricting or banning movement of animals from infected farms to other areas can reduce the spread of the disease and segregation of infected animals from others. This type of awareness can go a long way in checking the spread,” Jiba said.

    Jiba revealed that the Supervising Councillor in charge of health and other senior primary health workers are members of the committee, adding that the committee will collaborate with other relevant bodies for positive result.

     

  • Jonathan’s anger over Ebola stigmatisation

    President Goodluck Jonathan might have lost his cool on Wednesday last week over the misplaced consequences of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) on Nigerians who travel to foreign countries.

    The disease was brought into Nigeria by the late Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer.

    Jonathan did not hesitate to caution countries stigmatising Nigerians over the disease, which many international organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations (UN) had praised Nigeria for adequately containing it.

    The occasion for President Jonathan to criticise the countries that maltreat and pick on Nigerians over the disease presented itself when a Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. David Navarro, visited him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.

    He condemned the trend of discrimination and stigmatisation of Nigerians who travel abroad at the meeting with Navarro, who had visited the countries that are worst hit by Ebola, including Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, before coming to Nigeria.

    The President particularly denounced the discriminatory actions which forced Nigeria’s team to the Youth Olympics in China to abandon its participation at the championship.

    None of such Nigerian quarantined and tested in the countries involved, as at last week, tested positive to the disease.

    The National Sports Commission (NSC) mid-last month announced the pulling out of the country’s contingent from the Youth Olympics billed for Nanjing, China.

    According to the Director-General of NSC, Gbenga Elegbeleye, Nigerian athletes, who were already in China perfecting strategies for the games, were treated like lepers by the organisers of the championship.

    The Nigerian athletes, who were billed to feature in wrestling, beach volleyball and athletics, he said, were not only quarantined by the organisers due to the news of Ebola virus in Nigeria, but they were also barred from training ahead of the competition alongside athletes from other countries.

    Most of the Nigerian officials for the championship, he added, were also denied visa before the competition started.

    A Nigerian in India was quarantined and admitted at Jogeshwari’s Civic-run Trauma Centre in Mumbai Hospital last month after the airport authorities were informed that the man complained of having fever.

    The 32-year-old Nigerian had returned to India via a connecting Emirates airlines flight from Nigeria.

    After the necessary tests and monitoring, it was discovered that the Nigerian didn’t exhibit any symptoms of the deadly Ebola disease.

    Another Nigerian was quarantined in Hong Kong, China for showing Ebola-like symptoms during a trip from Lagos via Dubai to Hong Kong in early August.

    He was vomiting and suffering from diarrhea when he arrived at Hong Kong.

    After admission in a hospital in China, the man tested negative to the deadly Ebola virus.

    A 30-year-old Nigerian woman was also quarantined in Germany in August when she showed symptoms similar to that of the deadly Ebola disease.

    The woman, who fainted shortly after returning from Nigeria, was immediately hospitalised by the German health authorities to prevent Ebola virus disease in the country.

    A Nigerian specialist, Mojeed Olayinka Agoro, who is a Production Assistant at Dung Quat Oil Refinery in the central province of Quang Ngai, Vietnam was also quarantined for Ebola monitoring in Vietnam after arriving from Nigeria early last month.

    A medical examination carried out on him later showed that he was in a normal health condition.

    To confirm the test results and for the incubation period of two to 21 days to elapse, Agoro was isolated at home and self-monitored his health under professional instructions from the Provincial Preventive Health Centre, with assistance from the refinery’s health unit.

    Besides Agoro, two other Nigerians who arrived in Vietnam last month were also isolated for monitoring for signs of the deadly virus.

    The two Nigerians, who flew to Vietnam on Flight QR961 of Qatar Airways that left Nigeria on August 18 and arrived in the Tan Son Nhat International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, were having fever.

    The two Nigerians were taken by health workers to the Ho Chi Minh City Tropical Diseases Hospital for medical examination in isolated conditions. They were expected to stay for 21 days for monitoring for signs of Ebola infection.

    Nigerian students were also not left out in the new trend as three university students were examined by Vietnamese health experts after returning to Vietnam from Nigeria.

    From tests carried out on them, it was confirmed that they had not been infected with the deadly Ebola virus.

    It was also reported that some Air France crew had to boycott flights to Nigeria for fear of contracting the disease.

    The company was said to have given its staff freedom to choose whether or not to fly to Conakry, Freetown and Lagos after British Airways and Emirates were said to have suspended flights to the region.

    One Air France union, SNGAF had, last month, launched a petition calling for the “immediate end to flights to countries hit by the Ebola virus.

    Sophie Gorins, the Secretary-General of the SNPNC, which represents cabin crew, was quoted as saying: “We know that our jobs put us at risk, but they are measured risks. This is completely out of control and the information is not the same from one day to the next.”

    Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, noted that it was wrong for people from other countries to threaten to boycott Nigeria and that Nigeria rather should be the one to stop people from coming to Nigeria as the virus was first brought into the country by a Liberian-American visitor, the late Patrick Sawyer.