A medical doctor and a pharmacist who were quarantined at the Rivers
State Ebola treatment centre have been discharged, having tested
negative to the deadly disease.
They were among the personnel who managed the late Dr. Ikechukwu Sam.
Enemuo at his SamSteel Hospital in Port Harcourt when he became
symptomatic of Ebola disease. He died penultimate Friday in another
hospital.
The doctor and pharmacist were his workers. They had feverish
conditions as high as could suggest the disease, and were quarantined on
Saturday alongside Enemuo’s hospital room mate at Good Hart Hospital
where he died. Their test results were negative and they have been
released from the centre, but the ex-Good Hart patient was not that
lucky. She tested positive to the virus and is receiving treatment at
the centre.
Commissioner for Health Dr. Sampson Parker, in a situation report he
released yesterday in Port Harcourt, the state capital, said the late
Enemuo’s sister in-law, simply identified as Chinyere, who was with him
during his illness, had been admitted at the quarantine centre. She
ran off to Abia State after the death of her in-law, but has been
brought back by the Ebola Emergency Operation Committee (EOC). She
became feverish in Port Harcourt and was isolated. Her test result is
being awaited.
The Commissioner said over 200 contacts of the late Enemuo had been
traced and put under watch; 50 of them are classified high-risk and 60
are in hiding. He appealed to them to come out, so they could be
monitored for their safety and that of the public. The disease, said
Parker, could be treated if discovered on time .
Parker noted that the contacts that ran to Imo and Benue states had
been called back to Port Harcourt, but that of Akwa-Ibom could not be
reached. He said the assistance of the State Security Services (SSS) in
Akwa-Ibom State had been employed to track and send her back to Port
Harcourt.
The commissioner said four doctors, eight nurses and six expatriates,
all volunteers, are working at the centre while another batch is under
going training to join them.
Parker said the Federal and State governments were not relenting in
their efforts to ensure that the virus does not claim more lives in the
country. Three medical doctors, including Enemuo, have died of the
virus.
The late Enemuo contracted the disease when he treated a Nigerian
diplomat, Oluibukun Koye, who had contact with the index case,
Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer.
Koye sneaked into Port Harcourt from the Lagos Isolation centre where he was placed under watch. He is alive and well.
To forestall Ebola’s spread, the remains of Enemuo and several others
at the University of Port Harcourt (UPTH) mortuary would be buried in
Port Harcourt this week, under the supervision of the World Health
Organisation (WHO).
Parker classified the bodies as high-risk, adding that they would not be allowed to leave Port Harcourt.
He said: “Dr. Enemuo’s sister in-law, who ran off to Abia State after
the death of her in-law, has returned to Port Harcourt. She has become
symptomatic and now at the treatment centre.
“Results of the three patients we earlier admitted at the centre are
out; two of them tested negative, one tested positive. The two persons
who tested negative have been discharged and have left. However, we will
repeat the test after 21 days.
“The one tested positive person shared room with late Enemuo at the Good Hart Hospital.
“As we continue together in this fight, it is important that you be
vigilant. In fact we screen ourselves in our Ebola Emergency Operation
Committee (EOC) meetings now, in-case there was any error made in the
field.
“Country Director of World Health Organisation(WHO) and Director of
National Centre for Disease Control were with us in the meeting and we
have decided that within this week, Enemuo’s body and other high-risk
bodies in UPTH mortuary will be buried according to WHO protocol,
meaning that they will not leave Port Harcourt.
“The government will not allow the movement of either Enemuos’ body
or any of those considered high-risk to leave Port Harcourt. They will
be buried under the supervision of WHO, officials of the Ministry of
Health and other officials, so that we don’t expose the relatives to
danger.
“We will take care of all the safety measures, families/relatives of
the bodies will all be there to do whatever rite they want to do for
their deceased, but we will not allow them to touch the body. Management
of the bodies will be strictly under WHO protocols.
“And I can tell you here that none of the people involved in managing
Ebola patients both here (Port Harcourt) and Lagos has had any issue;
there is high mark of safety for Nigerians in this business.
“Let me assure you again that Ebola Virus Disease is not a death
sentence, in as much as we get those that have contracted it early.
“We still want to encourage those persons that are listed that we
have not seen, to come up. We have a lady that went to Akwa-Ibom State
from the hotel; we are still to get to her, we’ve sent her trackmen
through the SSS officials to Akwa Ibom, the one that went to Imo State
returned yesterday, she is still ok, but we don’t want to take chances.
We don’t want to fall into the same trick Oluibukun Koye played us here
in Port Harcourt.”
At the treatment centre are four doctors, eight nurses and six
expatriate officials (Doctors without Border) – all volunteers. The
number is still counting, because we have sent in more volunteers for
training before they could be allowed to go to the treatment centre.
Parker added: “We have earlier trained over 500 people on Ebola
management in our on-going training for health officials in the state,
but we considered it necessary to yet train those that have volunteered
at the centre before we can allow them to operate.
“Like Enemuo wore protective gadgets, but the issue is not wearing it
to do the job; the issue is on removing the gears; that is the point at
which the infection is contracted.”
Reacting to a statement credited to the Minister of State for
Education Nnyesom Wike, on the disease in Rivers State, Parker described
him as “an apology”.
Wike reportedly said the spread of the disease into the state was as a
result of the government’s insensitivity. The commissioner expressed
regrets at Wike’s statement, saying that the state made a big mistake by
nominating him to the Federal Government for ministerial appointment.
He said how the virus entered the state was common knowledge, adding:
“The best thing is to ignore him, because if I don’t ignore him, it
means that he does not even respect his boss the President of Nigeria.
The only thing I will say is that maybe we will apologise to the
President for nominating him for minister. This is because everybody is
now aware of how we got into this challenge; so if a minster of state
does not still know, I’m getting very worried that we have done
disservice to the government.
“His colleague in the cabinet, the minister of health, has made a
broadcast, where he explained how the whole thing happened, not
commissioner for Health , but the minister.
“I don’t know what he means by insensitivity. This is a government
that before the outbreak, we had spent so much money to go for personal
protective equipment, sent officials to go and see how the thing is
done, came back and been training members of staff, in case it happens.
As at today we have trained more than 500 staff in preparation for
Ebola, and someone is saying it is insensitivity.”
Parker went on: “We are not kind of mood and we should not mix
politics with what we are doing. Other people are asking us what they
can do to help; that is what he should do, he is a Rivers man and should
be concerned about the challenge in the state now and rally round the
government to face the problem, irrespective of our party affiliation.
“Nobody can fault the health system of Rivers State. Nobody can throw stone on it, because it is unbeatable.
“We are not talking of mass failure in WASC; we are faced with something else now, so we are not talking about that.” He said.
0 komentar:
Post a Comment