By AZOMA CHIKWE

Barely seven days after Mr. Pat­rick Sawyer, a Liberian, died in a private hospital in Lagos, one of the personnel, who helped him out of the aircraft on his arrival in Lagos, has shown signs of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

The latest victim, who was said to have helped the late Sawyer, but has not yet been named, was among the 59 persons the Federal Government and the Lagos State Government registered to have had contact with the late Sawyer immediately on his arrival in Nigeria on Sun­day, July 20.

Early symptoms of EVD include fever, headache, chills, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, head­ache and joint pains, while later symptoms include bleeding from the eyes, ears nose, and the mouth as well as the rectum, eye swelling, swelling of the genitals and rashes all over the body that often contain blood. It could progress to coma, shock and death.

As at four days after Sawyer’s death in Nigeria, precisely, Monday, July 27, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said 20 of the 59 people registered to have had contact with Sawyer had been physically screened. He said 50 per cent of these 20 people had type one contact with Sawyer and 50 per cent had type two contact.

Explaining this terminology, the Director, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Abdulsalam Nasidi, said type one contact means those who had direct one-on-one contact with the late Sawyer, while type two contact refers to those that had contact with those who had direct contact with Sawyer.

However, he said the committee working on the Ebola virus disease emergency was following the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline which recommended that only persons who showed signs of the EVD symptoms should be screened.

Efforts to get confirmation about the latest on the person showing signs of the EVD from Nasidi failed.  A text message to his phone asking for confirmation was not responded to.

 

 

…No fresh case in Lagos –LASG

Lagos State Government yesterday, said no fresh case of the dreaded Ebola Vi­rus Disease has been found in the state or any part of the country.

According to the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr. (Mrs.) Yewande Adeshina, none of the persons said to have come in contact with the late Liberian victim of the Ebola Vi­rus Disease had manifested unusual body temperature or any other symptom of the dreaded virus.

She explained that all the 59 persons, who had close contact with the deceased Liberian in Nigeria were hale and hearty and had not exhibited any unusual symptoms, just as there had been no case of the dreaded disease from the country’s

borders.

Also, the Commissioner for Information, Lateef Ibirogba, has advised the citizenry to be wary of the activities of fraudsters, who were making spurious claims about their ability to provide cure for the Ebola Virus Disease, urging them to always contact health pro­viders to report unusual feel­ings noticed.

He cautioned people to desist from sending panicky text messages round about the Ebola disease that could heighten tension and create anxiety.

He also advised those who wanted to make cheap money from the case to de­sist from their strange claims of cure for the disease or risk the wrath of the law, as only medical solutions were known to be appropriate for the disease.

He reminded residents of the state to make use of the emergency phone numbers- 08023169485, 08033086660, 08033065303, 08055281442 and 08055329229 provided to contact health authorities in case anyone with  observed symptoms of the Ebola disease was noticed.

He also advised residents to observe the highest level of personal environmental hygiene, adding that they should visit hospitals or primary health centres nearest to them to report strange feelings noticed.


Source: Sun