The minister of health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, made the announcement yesterday during a press briefing in Abuja.
Chukwu described the Ebola outbreak in the country as a “national emergency”, heightening fears of an outbreak.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the death toll in West Africa has risen to 932 after 45 patients died from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4.
WHO said the number of suspected, probable or confirmed cases rose by 108 over the same period to a total of 1, 711. It said most of the new cases were in Liberia while the number of cases in Nigeria climbed from 4 to 9, including one previous death.
The health minister also disclosed that Nigeria has now recorded seven confirmed cases of the Ebola virus disease, with two dead, including the Liberian, while the other five cases are currently being treated at the isolation ward in Lagos.
He said, “’The first one was the index case – the imported case from Liberia of which the victim is now late.
“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 being treated at the isolation ward in Lagos.”
The health minister disclosed that Sawyer – the man credited with bringing EVD to Nigeria – ‘knew he was sick’ with the virus before entry to Nigeria.
The minister said Sawyer snubbed instructions by Liberian health authorities not to travel out of the country.
The project director, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Prof. Abdulsalami Nasidi, disclosed that 70 Nigerians were currently under surveillance for the disease.
Nasidi disclosed that Sawyer had 70 primary and secondary registered contacts of which 39 were hospital contacts and 22 airport contacts.
Sawyer’s contacts, it was disclosed, comprised officers of the State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), airport support personnel and medical personnel that attended to Sawyer.
The director, port health services in the health ministry, Dr Sani Gwarzo, disclosed that restrictions have been placed on the repatriation of corpses of Nigerians abroad into the country.
As part of ongoing efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria, Gwarzo said 66 personnel were required by the health ministry to man and screen travellers at the country’s several travel entry points.
But the director-general, National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Professor John Idoko, was optimistic, saying that Nigeria would soon overcome the Ebola epidemic with the present interventions that the federal government is putting in place.
Idoko, who was fielding questions from journalists about the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease (EVD), yesterday in Abuja, said, “Ebola virus is an acute epidemic which either kills you or you kill it.
He said the country experiences such acute epidemic from time to time; he gave as examples cholera, meningitis that kill people in their thousands when the season arrives.
Idoko, who is a professor of virology, said “we will overcome this virus”. “Presently there is an experimental drug that can cushion the effect of the virus and, if properly handled, it can be controlled and managed within a few months.”
He added that the Ebola virus cannot be compared with the HIV virus because the HIV virus lives within the system and has been with us for over 30 years without a vaccine or a cure.
“It is unfortunate that people are joking about the HIV virus, saying that it is better that they have HIV than Ebola.
“HIV has killed over 30 million people since it debuted in 1981, which is much more than what the Ebola will kill. This is an African disease but the HIV is a global one.
“I am quite optimistic that, with the quick intervention of government, we will soon control it.”
The UNAIDS country director, Dr Bilali Camara, speaking on the Ebola virus disease, said that it is a novel disease that, though self-consuming, will soon be controlled.
Meanwhile, Chukwu said it was pertinent to note that all the Nigerians diagnosed of the EVD were primary contacts of the index case.
He also said that the federal government has asked the US Centre for Disease Control to extend the experimental drug being administered to the two Americans infected in Liberia.
Both are reported to be responding to treatment.
He also stated that the federal government was 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.
He added that the ministry was setting up a special team to provide counselling and psychosocial support to patients, identified contacts and their families.
“The 24/7 Emergency Operations Centre which I intimated you of in my last press conference will be functional by tomorrow.”
The minister also added that the ministry was embarking on recruiting additional health personnel to strengthen the team who are currently managing the situation.
He reassured that the government was working hard to ensure the containment of the outbreak.
“Within the week, I and the honourable minister of information would be visiting Lagos State to assess the situation on ground.”
WHO to explore experimental drugs in Ebola outbreak in West Africa
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is to convene a panel of medical ethicists to explore the use of experimental treatments in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The panel, according to the (WHO), will discuss whether medicines that have never been tested and shown to be safe in people should be used in the Ebola outbreak. It will also discuss whether, given the extremely limited amount of experimental medicine for Ebola available, if it is used, who should receive it.
The WHO Assistant director-general, Marie-Paule Kienv, said in a statement: “We are in an unusual situation in this outbreak. We have a disease with a high fatality rate without any proven treatment or vaccine.
“We need to ask the medical ethicists to give us guidance on what is the responsible thing to do.”
The WHO statement said that “the gold standard for assessing new medicine involved a series of trials in humans, starting small to make sure the medicine is safe to use, and the guiding principle was to do no harm”.
“There is no registered medicine or vaccine against the virus, but there are several experimental options under development,” it added.
Jonathan, Biden Meet, agree to join forces against Ebola fever
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday met with the Vice President of the United States Mr Joe Biden at the White House where both leaders agreed that the federal government and its American counterpart should join forces to combat Ebola threats in West Africa.
Our correspondent gathered that, during the meeting which was attended by the president and some members of his delegation, Mr Biden told President Jonathan that the US government would be fully involved in the quest to totally eradicate the spread of the deadly disease in West Africa.
Biden added that the entire African continent was very important and critical to the economy of the United States, a reason he said would make the Obama-led administration to ensure that Africa’s security becomes its priority.
In his response, President Jonathan assured the US leader that his administration was open to any positive idea that would bring an end to Ebola threats as well as insecurity and corruption.
South-west governors form coalition against Ebola
South-west governors yesterday shoved aside their political differences to form a united front against the deadly Ebola virus disease (EVD).
The governors that converged on Lagos for proactive and collaborative efforts to stop the rampaging disease that claimed its first victim in Lagos yesterday included Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, Dr Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State and Mr Moses Adeyemo, deputy governor Oyo State, who represented his principal, Senator Abiola Ajumobi.
Their collaboration is coming on the heels of offer of life insurance by the Lagos State government to anyone that volunteers to work in the team of medical personnel being assembled to treat Ebola-infected patients.
Addressing journalists in Lagos, Ikeja House, Fashola, flanked by his counterparts, said they had met with the commissioners for health in their respective states before coming out with a common collaborative position on ways they feel the disease can be contained.
Fashola said, “Essentially, we have addressed issues of containment and the challenges of illegal borders. We have felt the need to express appreciation to health workers who have taken responsibility from the front by attending to people who are showing symptoms and people who are suspected of having contact with the very first case that was reported in a man who came in from Liberia.
“All of what we have now are primarily related to that very first case and all the suspicious cases that have been confirmed and sicknesses that have followed are directly related to that first case, but you will hear more.”
Also speaking, the Ogun State governor Amosun lamented the porous nature of the nation’s borders, saying Ogun State alone has over 100 illegal borders.
Amosun said, “We are more prone and more at risk really in this Ebola virus than so many others, and I did mention that we have put all our security agencies and the respective medics at these illegal borders. But when you have in excess of 100, you and I know that the state doesn’t have the capacity really in manning these borders.
“Indeed, it is not our responsibility in manning these borders; we should collaborate with the federal government, which is what we are doing. As of the last, we have about 70 (illegal borders) that you can take containers and trailers and what have you; even on a normal day, people hardly use the official borders.
“It is the illegal ones that you see them packing all those smuggled cars and now it becomes more worrisome by the time you look at the fact that everybody now is taking proactive measures of banning flights. So, if people cannot fly, you know obviously they would find a way in entering
the country. That is why we are calling on the federal government to assist us.”
Also speaking, Ondo State governor Dr Olusegun Mimiko argued that there is no question about who has responsibility of manning the borders, saying it is the responsibility of every Nigerian and everybody to abate illegal entry into the country to avert spread of the deadly disease.
He said,” So, we out there – all Nigerians and adjoining villages, everybody – must take responsibility of combating this new challenge as a nation and it’s very important for the message to go out.”
Ekiti State governor Fayemi said trial of drugs currently being used in the United States of America was one of the things that they reflected on in the meeting.
“We have heard that there is a test drug that is currently being applied to the doctor who was taken from Liberia to Emery University Hospital in the USA and is being treated there and has some impact on his improvement.
“But this is still a drug that is on trial. From what we gathered, it has been tested on animals, but it has not been tested on humans yet, except for this particular case and there are processes a country has to go through to procure drugs that are still on trial.
“Even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not certified this drug for use yet, and if we are going to access it at all… my own limited knowledge of this process is that it can only be a controlled trial centre for it at this stage; it can’t be a certified drug for use.
“If what the federal government is trying to do is to be one of the centres to test the efficacy of the drug, I think that is well-meaning, that is commendable and we should encourage the FG to take that action.”
Delta designates 7 hospitals as isolation centres
Delta State governor Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan yesterday disclosed that the state government had set up a committee to educate and sensitize Deltans on the prevention and management of the Ebola virus.
Uduaghan, who called on Deltans not to panic as there was no identified case of the Ebola virus in the state, said that seven hospitals in the state had been designated as isolation centres to handle any suspected case as part of the management measures put in place by the government.
Lawmaker urges Katsina to constitute committee
The majority leader of Katsina State House of Assembly, Dr Lawal Aliyu, has urged the Katsina State government to urgently constitute an emergency committee on the dreaded Ebola virus.
Speaking to newsmen yesterday, Dr Aliyu said the call was necessary in view of the need for aggressive awareness campaigns on the disease, stressing that concrete measures needed to be put in place to prevent the citizens from contracting the disease.
Kogi govt bans sale, consumption of bush meat
Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State has formally banned the sale and consumption of bat and other bush meat in the state, citing the rising spread of Ebola virus which scientists say is transmitted through handling of infected wild animals.
“For us in Kogi, we have advised on the halt of sales and consumption of bats and bush meat around the post office area in Lokoja and all the local government areas,” he said.
Quite a number of Nigerians are yet to come to terms with the reality of the Ebola virus as many believe it is either a Western invention to exploit Africa through drug sales or a fictitious disease being popularized through the media.
Reacting to these claims, Gov. Wada said, “Ignorance and disbelief are the leading cause of the spread of Ebola. Reach out to your people in rural areas and share your knowledge with them.”
Demand for bitter kola increases in A/Ibom
Following the recent outbreak of Ebola disease and its attendant toll on humans across the West African sub-region, bitter kola, rumoured to cure or halt the spread of the deadly virus is now in high demand in Akwa Ibom.
According to LEADERSHIP findings, bitter kola now sells more than any other nut in most markets across the state.
At the popular Akpan Andem market in Uyo, the state capital, five nuts or seeds of the kola now sell for N100 as against N10 before, and buyers pay about N200 for six or seven nuts depending on the sizes.
Bitter kola price hike hits Makurdi
As the scarcity of bitter kola looms in Abuja, the nation’s capital, and other major cities, the price of the product has risen in Makurdi, the capital of Benue State.
There is report that bitter kola is used to cure the dreaded Ebola disease, and the development is causing scarcity and increase in the price of the commodity.
LEADERSHIP’s investigation in Makurdi and other major towns of the state, yesterday, revealed that many persons were buying the product in bulk from roadside vendors.
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As Virus Claims First Nigerian Victim: FG, States In Emergency Response Against Ebola |
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