{"id":958,"date":"2014-08-29T07:16:35","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T07:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=958"},"modified":"2014-08-29T07:16:35","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T07:16:35","slug":"infected-diplomat-takes-ebola-to-port-harcourt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=958","title":{"rendered":"Infected diplomat takes Ebola to Port Harcourt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ebola-new\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s efforts to contain the deadly Ebola\u00a0\u00a0 virus have suffered a major setback\u00a0\u00a0 with the news that another medical doctor has been killed by the disease in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.<\/p>\n

The news\u00a0\u00a0 was announced by the Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The doctor\u2019s passage on Friday, the first outside Lagos, caused panic in Rivers State and worry among health personnel and other stakeholders battling to stamp out the disease in the country.<\/p>\n

Although Chukwu did not give the identity of the doctor, the Rivers State Government\u00a0\u00a0 said he is\u00a0\u00a0 Iyke Enemuo.<\/p>\n

Enemuo was said to have contracted the virus from an Economic Community of West African States diplomat while allegedly treating him of Ebola symptoms in a hotel in Port Harcourt.<\/p>\n

It was gathered that Enemuo, before he took ill on Tuesday \u201coperated on a woman on Monday presumably after treating the diplomat.\u201d<\/p>\n

A resident of the city said on her Facebook page\u00a0\u00a0 that\u00a0\u00a0 the doctor\u2019s widow, who was quarantined alongside the diplomat, had a three-month-old baby.<\/p>\n

The ECOWAS official whose name was also not given by Chukwu, was said to have had contact with the index case in Nigeria (Patrick Sawyer). He was placed under surveillance in Lagos but he escaped to Port Harcourt\u00a0\u00a0 where he checked into a hotel and contacted Enemuo for treatment.<\/p>\n

The official recovered from the ailment and returned to Lagos. Health workers were said to have tested him when he allegedly came for a clearance certificate and gave him a clean bill of health.<\/p>\n

The minister\u00a0\u00a0 said following a test conducted on the corpse of Enemuo which showed that he died of the EVD,\u00a0\u00a0 Health ministry\u00a0\u00a0 officials\u00a0\u00a0 placed 70 people who came into contact with him either when he was sick or touched his corpse, under surveillance.<\/p>\n

But the Rivers State Government said \u201cabout 100 contacts from a hotel, patients of Dr. Enemuo and patients of the hospital where\u00a0\u00a0 Enemuo was treated until his demise have been identified and restricted.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Chukwu\u00a0\u00a0 told journalists that\u00a0\u00a0 Enemuo\u2019s death\u00a0\u00a0 had\u00a0\u00a0 increased the number of deaths recorded as a result of the EVD to six.<\/p>\n

He explained that even though the ECOWAS official\u00a0\u00a0 did not presently have the EVD,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 further laboratory tests indicated that he had suffered the deadly disease before travelling to the oil-rich city.<\/p>\n

Chukwu said, \u201cThis case (ECOWAS official) 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, August 22, 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the report of this death by the doctor\u2019s widow the next day, the case had been thoroughly investigated and laboratory analysis showed that this doctor died from EVD.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minister added that the Incident Management Committee had already deployed a very strong team in Port Harcourt to work with the Rivers State\u2019s health authorities.<\/p>\n

He assured Nigerians that \u201cjust 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.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cThe doctor\u2019s blood sample tested positive after death. Also, 70 persons have been placed under surveillance in Port Harcourt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to charge the residents of Port Harcourt not to panic over this situation as the experience we have gathered from Lagos and Enugu respectively indicate that there is no cause for alarm when you have the government fully in control of the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, we appeal to all contacts under surveillance to abide by the advice given to them by the Incident Management Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith regard to Enugu, all secondary contacts will be followed up till tomorrow (Friday) when they are all expected to be discharged from our surveillance.<\/p>\n

He maintained that the total number of cases treated at the isolation ward in Lagos stood at 13 while the total number of those discharged was seven.<\/p>\n

The minister added that the only person currently under treatment at the isolation ward was stable and improving clinically.<\/p>\n

Also at the news\u00a0\u00a0 conference, the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, appealed to Nigerians under surveillance to respect the advice of\u00a0\u00a0 medical personnel\u00a0\u00a0 pending when they would receive a clean bill of health to travel.<\/p>\n

But in Port Hourcourt where some residents feared that\u00a0\u00a0 many people who came into contact with Enemuo and the ECOWAS official might\u00a0\u00a0 have gone underground, the state government said it acted proactively by placing about 100 persons under surveillance.<\/p>\n

A statement by the Rivers State\u2019s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sampson Parker, quoted Governor Rotimi Amaechi as\u00a0\u00a0 urging \u201cevery Rivers State citizen and resident to remain calm and go about their normal business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement read in part, \u201cit is with a heavy heart that I announce to you that the Ebola virus has claimed its first victim in Rivers State.<\/p>\n

Dr. Iyke Sam Enemuo died last week Friday, August 22, 2014 as a result of what was suspected to be EVD.<\/p>\n

The Rivers State Ministry of Health on becoming aware of the conditions of his death, immediately commenced investigations and contact tracing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of today (Thursday), about 100 contacts from a hotel, patients of Dr. Enemuo and patients of the hospital where the Enemuo was treated until his demise have been identified and restricted in Rivers State. The locations are being decontaminated.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our investigations, some facts have emerged. A member of staff of ECOWAS on the team that received the late\u00a0\u00a0 Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American diplomat, who died of Ebola\u00a0\u00a0 in Lagos, made a trip to Port Harcourt where he checked into a hotel and met with Dr.\u00a0\u00a0 Enemuo.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout a week after his departure, Enemuo took ill and was rushed to a hospital where he presented with symptoms of fever, diarrhea and vomiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the course of treatment, the managing physician became suspicious and took samples for investigation. A few days after, \u00a0Enemuo died on August 22, 2014. His body was deposited in a mortuary in Port Harcourt.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnemuo\u2019s widow, who is also a medical doctor and who cared for him during his illness, has taken ill. She is being quarantined.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018A few hours ago, results of the test carried out on samples taken from Dr. Enemuo came back and was positive of EVD.\u201d<\/p>\n

A resident of Port Harcourt, said in her Facebook post, that\u00a0\u00a0 the latest development was a calamity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite a calamity unfolding in Port Harcourt. Unfortunately, the city\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0 health facilities are not quite ready to contain Ebola at the moment,\u201d she lamented.<\/p>\n

The resident said Enemuo, before he took ill on Tuesday, \u201coperated on a woman on Monday presumably after treating the diplomat.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wrote, \u201cHe (Enemuo) fell ill next day Tuesday and died last Friday. No one knew about the hotel angle which was a very big risk he took\u2026and unethical thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was ill for three days and then started vomiting blood. He was first rushed to one hospital where he was rejected and then taken to Good Heart Hospital whose owner is a Cardiologist and a consultant physician with the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital . He died there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctor that died practises in East West Road, Rumuokoro\u2026Sam Steel clinic. The wife, also a doctor, has a three-month-old baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it is, there may have been well over 200 contacts of this devilish diplomat who lured his young doctor friend to treat him secretly and went back to Lagos. We have to look at the health workers in the Good Heart Hospital, Sam Steel Clinic, the members of staff of the hotel and its guests, those who travelled with the diplomat in the same vehicle(s) or aircraft from Lagos to Port Harcourt, the late doctor\u2019s family members. The list goes on and on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resident ,who is an educationist, added that what played out in this latest development was what she called the\u00a0\u201cOstrich mentality of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cMy own take is what is with the foolishness of people who suspect they have Ebola not wanting to subject themselves to straight testing. Don\u2019t they know quick detection could save their lives and those of others?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another resident said she was particularly worried that Ebola had reached Port Harcourt, a city where according to her,\u00a0\u00a0 social and economic activities are very high.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cLook, I am troubled that this virus in here with us. I am disturbed because I know this state cannot easily trace people who came into contact with the so-called diplomat and the doctor that died.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear that many of the contacts must have travelled to neighbouring states like Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and even Cross River State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sahara Reporters<\/em> said on Thursday that Good Heart Hospital, and the hotel where the ECOWAS diplomat allegedly received treatment in Port Harcourt, had been shut down.<\/p>\n

However, a member of the Emergency Operation Centre for Ebola in Lagos, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, has argued that the Federal Government and the Lagos State government should not be blamed for the death of the medical doctor in Port Harcourt.<\/p>\n

Tomori told one of our correspondents on Thursday that some of the people who had had primary contact with Sawyer, did not cooperate with the monitoring and surveillance committee by evading surveillance.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cInitially many people who came into contact with Sawyer were not forthcoming with the truth. It was difficult to trace some contacts who did not leave any address. They could not trace the ECOWAS diplomat for days. Surveillance is the duty of everyone. And we must follow international guidelines and regulation. If we take your temperature and say we will be back tomorrow by 8am to take another, we expect that you should cooperate, but that was not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome even travelled, and their people were also not ready to disclose where they went. Some even denied the degree of contact that they had with Sawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomori who is also a professor of virology noted that though there were no sanctions yet for those who evade surveillance,\u00a0\u00a0 such individuals pose great health risk to the nation.<\/p>\n

To further contain the outbreak, Tomori advised doctors to treat every case of high fever, vomiting and stooling as a suspected case of Ebola.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI will say with the new dimension, doctors should assume the worst when they see patients with high fever who are vomiting and stooling. Those with three symptoms of the disease must be put under observation and isolated, while waiting for a test result.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that we get laboratories where test results can be out within two or three hours. That way you can quickly isolate and begin taking necessary precautions to contain it within the health facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

US to begin human testing of Ebola vaccine <\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, United States researchers will next week start testing humans with an experimental vaccine to prevent the\u00a0\u00a0 Ebola virus.<\/p>\n

The National Institute of Health announced on Thursday that it was launching the safety trial on a vaccine developed by the agency\u2019s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline.<\/p>\n

It will test 20 healthy adult volunteers to see if the virus is safe and triggers an adequate response in their immune systems.<\/p>\n

That testing, according to the Associated Press, <\/em> will be at NIH\u2019s campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Later in September, NIH and a British team will test the vaccine on volunteers in the United Kingdom, Gambia and Mali.<\/p>\n

American health officials are also talking about a future trial in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Ebola cases could reach 20,000\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 WHO<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Geneva, Switzerland, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday that the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa could exceed 20,000 cases, more than six times as many as are now known.<\/p>\n

A new plan by the United Nations health agency to stop Ebola\u00a0\u00a0 assumes that the actual number of cases in many hard-hit areas may be two to four times higher than currently reported.<\/p>\n

If that is accurate, it suggests there could be up to 12,000 cases already,out of which 1,552 people are dead in West Africa alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis far outstrips any historic Ebola outbreak in numbers. The largest outbreak in the past was about 400 cases,\u201d Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO\u2019s assistant director-general for emergency operations, told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nigeria\u2019s efforts to contain the deadly Ebola\u00a0\u00a0 virus have suffered a major setback\u00a0\u00a0 with the news that another medical doctor has been killed by the disease in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The news\u00a0\u00a0 was announced by the Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday. The doctor\u2019s passage on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/ebola-new.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-fs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}