According to him, the health ministry is currently monitoring about 400 people in Port Harcourt, for signs of the disease after they came in contact with the Port Harcourt doctor who secretly treated the diplomat who had contracted Ebola in a Port Harcourt hotel.
The doctor, who died on the 22nd of August, 2014 exposed his wife (who has now tested positive), his sister who skipped quarantine has Ebola, and many others, including his doctor friends who treated him when he fell ill, by not telling them he had been exposed to the deadly virus.
“Everything about this doctor was in secrecy; he violated our public health laws by treating a patient with a highly pathogenic agent who revealed to him that he had contact with Ebola and didn’t want to be treated in Lagos because he might be put in isolation.
“He treated him in secrecy outside hospital premises. When he became ill he did not reveal to his colleagues that he had contact with someone who contracted Ebola. He was taken to General Hospital, a private hospital that sees everybody.
“That is the only case that effectively escaped our surveillance network. We are paying now for it,” Dr. Abdulsalami Nasidi said.However, a statement from the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health has disclosed that 296 persons are under surveillance in Nigeria, eight cases have been managed and discharged. The newest case, the wife of the late Port Harcourt doctor, went home from treatment in Yaba yesterday.
Read the full release below.
8th patient of Ebola discharged, confirmed cases now 18
Status of Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria
Wednesday, 3rd September, 2014
Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu has given an update of the status of Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria.
1. Total number of confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria is now eighteen (18). The 18th confirmed case is the sister of the late Port Harcourt doctor.
2. Total number of cases successfully managed and discharged is now eight (8). The last case to be discharged, the first secondary contact to be diagnosed and a spouse of a primary contact of the index case, went home from the isolation ward in Lagos yesterday. (The 9th survivor is the ECOWAS Commission official who jumped surveillance in Lagos and travelled to Port Harcourt where he infected the doctor who attended to him).
3. Total number of deaths from Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria is now seven (7). One (1), the index case, occurred in a private hospital in Lagos, four (4) in the Lagos isolation ward, one (1) in the Port Harcourt isolation ward (the female patient who was on admission in the same hospital where the late Port Harcourt doctor was also admitted), while another one (1) was the doctor who was infected by the ECOWAS Commission official in Port Harcourt and who did not come under the care and management of the Incident Management Committee.
4. Total number of EVD patients currently under treatment is two (2), one in the Lagos isolation ward and another one (1) in the Port Harcourt isolation ward.
5. Total number of contacts currently under surveillance in Lagos is forty one (41), while Port Harcourt has two hundred and fifty five (255).
6. Total number of contacts discharged in Lagos after they were observed for 21 days is 320.
The minister also debunked rumours of EVD cases outside Lagos and Port Harcourt. These include the three (3) reported cases in the Federal Capital Territory and one case in Calabar. The minister further debunked the story that the body of the late Port Harcourt doctor was transported to Edo or Delta State, saying the body has been decontaminated and will be interred in Port Harcourt. Regarding the rumoured case in Zaria, the blood sample has been sent for Ebola testing.
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