First Nigerian to contract Ebola discharged

Lagos - The Minister of Health, Prof.
Onyebuchi Chukwu, on Saturday announced
that the first Nigerian confirmed to have
contracted the Ebola virus had been
discharged after full recovery.
Chukwu, who briefed the media in Lagos, said
the patient was discharged “after conclusive
discharge protocols”, adding that she could go
home to resume her normal life.
According to him, five other Ebola patients
have almost fully recovered.
The media reports that a female doctor had
attended to the Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who
brought the disease to Nigeria.
Chukwu said that Nigeria had recorded a 12
confirmed cases, four deaths and 189 persons
under surveillance in Lagos, and six persons
under surveillance in Enugu.
He said that all the persons under surveillance
were secondary contacts.
“All the patients under treatment have now
moved to the new 40-bed capacity isolated
ward provided by the Lagos State
Government.”
“Additional equipment has also been made
available to the new isolating ward by the
Federal Government”, he said.
The minister also said that the Nanosilver drug
which was made available to the Emergency
Operations Centre in Lagos on August 14, did
not meet basic research requirements.
“The experimental drug, Nanosilver, did not
meet the requirements of the National Health
Research Ethics Code.”
“Accordingly, approval was withheld by the
National Health Research Ethics Committee.”
“Other candidate drugs are being evaluated by
the Treatment Research Group of Ebola
Disease.”
“As soon as any of the experimental drugs is
cleared by the National Health Research Ethics
Committee and is made available, we shall
include it in the treatment regimen subject to
the informed consent of the patient.”
Chukwu denied the rumour of Ebola virus in
Imo, Abia and Cross River States, adding that
the case of the disease in Kwara was still
under investigation.
“The mother of the child in Kwara tested
negative and we are still investigating the
child. Also, the corpse in Anambra was
embalmed and we are awaiting result of the
test.”
“All the mortuary attendants who had contact
with the corpse tested negative, so there is no
need to panic,” he said.
On suspension of resident doctors’ training by
the Federal Government, Chukwu said there
had been problems with the training which also
informed the ongoing doctors' strike.
According to Chukwu, the suspension is with all
federal government hospitals, adding that
states’ teaching hospitals were not affected.
“The government suspended the training to
allow for critical investigation and come up
with better ways to improve the training.”
Chukwu also said the paper work for insurance
package for volunteers was ongoing, adding
that Lagos State Government had commenced
implementation of insurance package for
health workers.