Amos Dunia in Abuja—The Federal Government on Thursday announced that another Nigerian doctor has died from the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Port Harcourt.
Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, who announced this said the affected doctor was involved in the treatment of one of the primary contacts of the index case, Liberian-American, late Patrick Sawyer who imported the EVD into Lagos and died on July 25, 2014.
Prof Chukwu told journalists in Abuja that the contact evaded surveillance and escaped to Port Harcourt where he approached the late doctor for treatment.
According to him: “This primary contact of Mr. Sawyer’s evaded our surveillance team in the last week of July 2014 and travelled out of Lagos to Port Harcourt where, as we now understand, he consulted with a doctor and was apparently treated for some symptoms.
“After four days, following a manhunt for him, he returned to Lagos by which time he was found to be without symptoms. Even though presently he does not have EVD but further laboratory tests indicate that he had suffered EVD.
“This case would have been of no further interest since he had completed the 21 days of surveillance without any other issue, but for the fact that the doctor who treated him died last Friday, 22nd August, 2014.
“Following the report of this death by the doctor’s widow the next day, the case had been thoroughly investigated and laboratory analysis showed that this doctor died from EVD. As a result, several contacts have now been traced, registered and placed under surveillance.
“However, because the widow is now symptomatic, she has been quarantined pending the outcome of laboratory tests on her. The Incident Management Committee has already deployed a very strong team to Port Harcourt to work with the health authorities of Rivers State. Just like the situation has effectively been managed in Lagos and Enugu, the situation in Port Harcourt will also similarly be effectively managed and we have begun to do so,” Prof Chukwu said.
The Health minister also said that 70 persons have been placed under surveillance in Port Harcourt and therefore appealed to residents of Port Harcourt not to panic over this situation, saying; “As the experience we have gathered from Lagos and Enugu respectively indicate, there is no cause for alarm when you have the government fully in control of the situation.”
He said the total number of deaths from Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria now stands at six, adding that the deaths so far include the index case (Sawyer), four primary contacts that died in the isolation ward in Lagos, and the doctor equally died in Port Harcourt whose blood sample tested positive after death.