The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, yesterday declared that Nigeria must treat Ebola outbreak as a national emergency, even as he reiterated that seven persons have contracted the virus in the country.
Addressing the House of Representatives Committee on Health, Chukwu said the outbreak had taken a dimension of a national emergency and urged Nigerians to treat it as such.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has put the death figure in West Africa at 932. The death toll from WHO came on the heels of a confirmation by authorities in Nigeria of the death of a nurse as a result of Ebola virus.
Describing the situation in the country as bad, the health minister said Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian, credited with bringing Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) to Nigeria, ‘knew he was sick’ with the virus before entering the country.
The minister revealed that Sawyer disregarded instructions by Liberian health authorities not to travel out of the country.
He disclosed that seven Nigerians, including one dead, were already diagnosed with Ebola.
Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, who stated this at a news conference in Abuja, also confirmed that five other medical practitioners, who participated in the treatment, were already infected with the virus.
He said, “Nigeria has now recorded seven confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease.
“The first one was the index case, which is the imported case from Liberia of which the victim is now late.
“Yesterday, August 5, 2014, the first known Nigerian to die of the EVD was recorded and this was one of the nurses that attended to the Liberian.
“The other five cases are currently being treated at the Isolation Ward in Lagos.”
The Minister noted that all the Nigerians diagnosed were primary contacts of the index case.
He announced the appointment of Prof. O. Onajole, of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, who would be based in Lagos, as the Director, Communication and Community Mobilisation for the EVD.
He also pledged to visit Lagos within the week, in company with his colleague in the ministry of information, to assess the situation on ground. – Additional report from Punch.
