Nigerian female nurse who treated the late Liberian Patrick Sawyer at the First Consultant Hospital in Obalende, Lagos has died of the Ebola virus.
This is the first death of a Nigerian from the disease after the Liberian’s death on July 25.
Two other Nigerians among the five who are down with the virus are in critical condition.
The Liberian-American, who travelled to Nigeria on July 20, fell ill aboard the Asky Airline plane that brought him and was admitted at the Lagos hospital where he was treated. He died on July 25 as his test results showed that he was infected with the virus.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) whose officials are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, said yesterday that the death toll from the virus had hit 932.
The virus is spreading. A Saudi man who visited Sierra Leone has died in Saudi Arabia of Ebola-related symptoms.
Minister of Health Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu said at a news conference yesterday in Abuja: “Yesterday, 5th August, 2014, the first known Nigerian to die of the EVD was recorded and this was one of the nurses that attended to the Liberian. The other five cases are currently being treated at the isolation ward in Lagos.”
He said all the Nigerians diagnosed with Ebola were primary contacts of the index case – the late Patrick Sawyer.
“The 24/7 emergency operations centre will be fully functional tomorrow (today). It will be headed by Dr Faisal Shuaibu as the incident manager. He will later today lead a six-man inter-agency team drawn from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Lagos to complete the setting up of the centre. They will be joined by the other personnel from Lagos State government and the federal hospitals in the Lagos area as well as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
“We are making arrangements to procure isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
“We are also setting up a special team to provide counselling and psychosocial support to patients, identified contacts and their families,” he said.
The minister reassured Nigerians that the government “was working hard to ensure the containment of the outbreak.
To increase public awareness of the virus, the minister has appointed Prof. O.Onajole of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) as the Director of Communication and Community Mobilisation.
Onajole, who will be based in Lagos, is expected to recruit more health personnel.
“We are embarking on recruiting additional health personnel to strengthen the team who are currently managing the situation in Lagos.
“We are making arrangements to procure Isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory,” Chukwu added.
Two of the five persons being treated for Ebola virus at the isolation ward in Lagos are in critical conditions, the state government said yesterday.
Commissioner for Health Dr. Jide Idris urged religious bodies to cancel all meetings and crusades that would involve a large congregation of people to prevent the spread.
Idris, who also confirmed the death of the nurse, said the government was doing all that is necessary to care for those in isolation and those in critical situation.
His words: “ Based on contact tracing arising from the index case that came into the country from Liberia, a total of 70 persons were monitored. Out of these, eight have been admitted and their blood samples taken. Result of five out of the eight blood samples taken have been received with four testing positive while the fifth was negative.”
The commissioner said the government was challenged with getting the requisite infrastructure needed to address the developing situation. He noted that efforts were ongoing to address the situation.
Idris said volunteers, especially contact trackers, case management personnel, including doctors, nurses, environmental health workers, phlebotomists with experience and expertise in infectious disease control, were needed urgently.
He said the government was willing to take care of such volunteers in safety to personal health and life insurance cover.
“I, once again, allay the fears of health workers who have the requisite expertise needed to manage these confirmed and probable cases. The bottom line is that if we cannot provide the requisite quality and quantity of health workers needed for the management of these cases, outsiders would find it difficult to come in and help as is the case in scare human resource in health settings,: Idris said.
He urged business men and women engaged in the commerce of materials and equipment critically needed in the management of the outbreak “not to cash in on this unfortunate situation by hiking the prices of their commodities such as gloves, sanitisers, decontamination equipment and chemicals.”
Idris said 27 persons had been traced in the secondary contact tracing as at yesterday.
On the Centre for the Treatment of Tuberculosis (TB) in Lagos Mainland, the commissioner said: “If we need to move the people with TB there to another place, we will move them, so that we can properly separate those infected with Ebola virus.”
Appealling to the striking doctors, he said, doctors at this time should sheath their swords and return to work because there is a national health emergency at hand.
He added: “There is no panic as long as basic precautionary measures, such as hand washing, adoption of appropriate waste management and enhanced personal/environmental hygiene, are adhered to.
“Burial ceremonies where mourners, including family members, have direct contact with patients who died of Ebola have also played a role in the spread. Direct contact with bodies should be minimised at this period even as washing and burial of such bodies should be professionally handled with safety to personal health of handlers being a cardinal focus.”
At the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, screening of passengers have been stepped up.
Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN) and Federal Ministry of Health officials screening passengers with infra red equipment at the arrival halls.
The screening with infra red equipment and hand gloves is to avoid body contact with passengers.
The screening of in – bound passengers is in three stages. These are distribution of forms to ascertain their health status, checking of the aircraft and screening of the passengers with infra red equipment before they embark on immigration protocols.
Facilities have been provided at the airport for passengers who manifest unusual body temperature and other symptoms of the Ebola virus .
Scores of Port Health personnel, wearing white gloves are stationed at various units in the arrival hall to carry out body temperature tests on the arriving passengers.
FAAN spokesman Yakubu Dati described the screening as part of efforts taken by the government to curtail the spread of the virus.
