Maku To Nigerians: Don’t Take Ebola Patients To Prayer Houses

The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, on Monday in Abuja advised Nigerians against harboring people suspected to be infected with the Ebola Virus Disease in prayer houses.

He spoke at a conference organised by the Ministry of Health to provide guidelines to commissioners of health on how to sensitize the people on the deadly virus.
Maku said that while it was important to note that God still performed miracles, the public ought to be sensitized to help the federal government contain the disease by leaving their loved ones at designated quarantine centres.
Making reference to the story of the centurion in the Bible, the information minister asked relatives to rather send names of patients to prophets and religious leader for prayers.
“Miracles should take place in quarantine centres. If you have a prayer warrior in Lagos, just send the name of the person to him for the miracle”, Mr. Maku said.
He said that while the disease was deadly, it was important to note that there was no need to stigmatize anyone with the infectious disease. He called on persons who might show symptoms of the disease, to help by reporting themselves to quarantine centres in order to save their own lives and that of their family members.
He also encouraged state Commissioners of Health to work towards the translation of pamphlets shared at the conference to their various local dialects.
Thanking the media for its coverage of the virus since its outbreak in the country, Maku urged media organizations to ensure that stories on the disease did not cause anxiety among residents even as he sought their help in public enlightenment.
The Head, Port Health Services, Sani Gwarzo, said that Nigeria had started land border screening in Seme and Idiriko. He said it was the responsibility of every country to protect its borders.
Mr. Gwarzo said since the outbreak of the disease, the Ports Health Services was making sure that it delivered safe, healthy and easy screening at all ports and borders in Nigeria.
The Ebola Virus Disease spread to Nigeria in July through a Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who it was later learnt, evaded quarantine in Liberia to attend a conference in the country. Although he died some few days later in Lagos, nine Nigerians have since tested positive for the virus with one dead.
Also, 177 primary and secondary contacts of the index case have been identified and isolated.

REVEALED: How Lagos Nursing Mother Contracted Ebola Virus

A medical doctor has revealed how a nursing mother contracted the deadly Ebola virus at a Lagos hospital.

It was learnt that the woman was the patient who visited the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation staff clinic on Muri Okunola Street in the Victoria Island area of Lagos.

NNPC had issued a press statement on Friday, saying that the clinic would be shut due to a suspected case of Ebola reported in the clinic.
Our correspondent gathered from the source, who had a first-hand information of the incident, that the nursing mother had first visited the First Consultant Medical Centre, Obalende.
He said, “The lady attended ante-natal at First Consultant prior to the arrival of the Liberian, Mr. Patrick Sawyer. She was delivered of her baby at the hospital after which she was discharged.
“A few weeks later, Mr. Sawyer came around and was attended to by health workers. He was first treated for malaria, then typhoid, before there was high index of suspicion. He tested positive for Ebola and died.
“Then the woman, who gave birth at the hospital came back to the hospital for her baby’s immunisation. The nurses who attended to Sawyer also attended to her.
“When she visited the place again last week, she discovered the place had been shut down for proper fumigation as a means of control against Ebola.”
He said the nursing mother decided to visit a neighbouring clinic which was the NNPC clinic.
He said it was there she began her treatment after she fell ill.
“She was first treated for Malaria. However, after some medical tests, there was a high suspicion of Ebola haemorrhagic fever.
“On Friday, the Lagos State’s emergency response team on Ebola virus came around and took her to the Infectious Diseases Hospital,” he added.
Our correspondent learnt that the yet-to-be-identified mother and her baby, who were taken away from the hospital on Friday, had been quarantined.
Confirming the report, the Medical Officer of Health, Iru-Victoria Island Local Council Development Area, Dr. Wale Akeredolu, said the patient tested positive to the Ebola virus after a second test was conducted on her.
He confirmed the incident at a sensitisation programme organised for residents of the Eti-Osa Local Government Area by the council on Monday.
He added, “The baby has also been quarantined to see if after the incubation period of two to 21 days, she would manifest the symptoms of Ebola.”
The council boss, Abayomi Daramola, appealed to residents not to shirk their responsibilities on the pretext of running away from the virus.
He said, “This is a trying time in Nigeria. But the presence of Ebola does not mean people should run away from their responsibilities. The public apprehension is what can even spread the disease faster. So, people should just follow personal hygiene, use sanitisers and wash their hands regularly.”

Passenger Waiting To Board Dies At Lagos Airport

A passenger waiting to collect the Yellow Card from Port Health Officials at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos has collapsed and died.

The ugly incident happened Monday, during the first official tour of the airport facility by the new Minister of Aviation, Mr Osita Chidoka.
The deceased was identified as Mr Akunne Osei, a Nigerian residing in Accra who arrived Lagos for business transactions aboard an Arik Air flight on Friday August 8, 2014 and was on his way back to Accra for medical treatment, reports Vanguard.
General Manager, Corporate Communication, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr Yakubu Datti, while reacting on the passenger’s death said; “The passenger, Mr. Akunne Osei took ill on Saturday August 9 and started stooling. When the situation got worse, he called his doctor in Accra who instructed him to return to Ghana immediately for further treatment.”
“During boarding formalities for his return trip to Accra, at the international terminal of MMA, Mr. Osei, who had obviously become weak at this time, was subjected to Ebola Virus test by port health officials, the result of which was negative. No further attention was paid to him after his Ebola Virus result read negative but the passenger later slumped and died around the port health office.”
The body of Osei was said to have been kept at zero car park of the airport terminal and was still there when the minister visited the facility.

The First Ebola Victim: Read the Story of the 2 Year Old Boy in Guinea

The largest outbreak of Ebola in history was likely started by a 2 year old boy in a remote village in Guinea according to researchers. The boy, called Patient Zero in this outbreak, died on December 6th 2013 after suffering from fever, black stool & vomiting. That illness has now been found to be Ebola 

Before he died, he infected his mother, his 3 year old sister, his grandmother and a mid wife who was caring for him when he was ill. His mum and sister died before the end of December 2013 after suffering bleeding symptoms. His grandmother died January 1st. The mid-wife died by February 11th but before dying, she had passed the virus to her family members who died the following month in March 2014. Continue…

The virus spread from the Southern Guinea village to other parts of Africa after villagers from Sierre Leone and Liberia, who share a border with the village, attended the grandmother’s burial. Two of the funeral attendees fell ill and the virus spread from their families to their villages and to health care workers and family members taking care of patients. And one Patrick Sawyer brought it to Nigeria!

How the child became infected is a biggest mystery as scientist who have traced the the outbreak this time say they don’t know how the toddler got infected.

So far, 960 people have died from the virus while 1,779 people have been infected…

Newly Married Nurse Tests Positive To Ebola Virus In Lagos

This deadly Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, has caused and still causing trouble for many families. The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, has revealed that another Lagos nurse has tested positive to Ebola.
This sad development is coming 22 days after the first first case of the virus was recorded. The minister said the newly married nurse was among those that had direct contact with the late Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer, who is said to be the one who imported the disease into Nigeria.
Unfortunately, before the Nurse was diagnosed, she had gone home and slept with her new husband. So, her husband is now among the 177 people that government has placed under strict surveillance in Lagos.
The Health Minister added that, so far, nine persons have developed EVD, thus bringing the total number of the confirmed Ebola cases in Nigeria to 10. Two persons have died as a result of the virus in Nigeria.
All those who had primary contact with late Sawyer had been placed on either surveillance or quarantined.
The minister confirmed that the Ebola had so far been restricted to Lagos as it had not spread to other states.

SAD: ‘Ebola’ Corpses Litter Streets Of Monrovia For Days, Angry Crowd Protests (PHOTOS)

Riot police raced to quell a demonstration blocking Liberia’s busiest highway Saturday as an angry crowd protested the government’s delays in collecting the bodies of Ebola victims.

In Guinea, where the deadly Ebola outbreak emerged in March, health officials announced Saturday that the country was closing its land borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone — two of the countries where the killer virus has now spread and where deaths are mounting.
The World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak an international health emergency Friday. The growing unease in Liberia, where nearly 300 people have died from the gruesome disease, raises the specter of social unrest.
Several bodies had been lying by the roadside for two days in the central town of Weala, 50 miles (75 kilometers) from the capital of Monrovia, and no government agency had picked them up, residents said.
The Ebola virus spreads through the bodily fluids of its victims and many in West Africa have fallen ill after touching or handling corpses. Liberia’s government has ordered that all Ebola victims be cremated amid community opposition to neighborhood burials for fear of further contamination.
Information Minister Lewis Brown sounded a warning on state radio Saturday.
“Security people are on their way to put things under control,” Brown said, directing his comments to protesters. “We don’t want people taking the law into their own hands.”
The latest Ebola outbreak is the largest ever recorded for the disease and so far has killed at least 961 people, according to figures released Friday by the U.N. health agency. This outbreak emerged in Guinea and has since spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.
The situation is particularly dire in Liberia, where the Doctors Without Borders charity group has described the conditions as “catastrophic.”
“There are reports of dead bodies lying in streets and houses,” said the group’s emergency coordinator in Liberia, Lindis Hurum.
At least 40 health workers in Liberia have contracted Ebola in recent weeks and most of the city’s hospitals are closed, Hurum said.
On Saturday, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was meeting with health workers at City Hall in Monrovia.
“The president wants to express the collective gratitude of the entire nation to our health care workers who have continued to make tremendous sacrifices for this country and people,” said Brown.
State radio broadcaster Smith Toby called health workers “front-line soldiers” leading the fight against Ebola.
Liberia has launched “Operation White Shield” under which soldiers are deployed in different locations and at checkpoints outside the capital to discourage residents’ movements, part of Sirleaf’s emergency measures to better fight the disease.
Health workers were stationed next to soldiers at checkpoints Saturday, taking the temperatures of commuters. People with temperatures above normal were blocked from leaving.
Also Saturday, a Catholic humanitarian group based in Spain said a Congolese nun working in Liberia had died of Ebola.
The San Juan de Dios hospital order announced that Sister Chantal Pascaline died “from Ebola in the Hospital San Jose de Monrovia, despite the care she received from a volunteer nurse.”
Pascaline belonged to the same order as a Spanish missionary priest and nun evacuated to Madrid by jet this week. Both are in stable condition in a Madrid hospital, officials say.

A MUST READ – HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE EBOLA VIRUS!

Wash Your Hands with Soap
Do this a lot. You can also use a good hand sanitizer. Avoid unnecessary contact!

No Bush Meat & Suya
Bush meat may be carrying the virus. Also avoid suya. Better to restrict yourself to food you prepared yourself.

Disinfect Your Surroundings
The virus cannot survive disinfectants, heat, direct sunlight, detergents and soaps. Clean up!

Fumigate If you Have Pests
Fumigate your environment & dispose of the carcasses properly! Better a clean environment for you!

Don’t Touch Carcasses
Dead bodies can still transmit Ebola. Don’t touch them without protective gear or avoid them altogether.

Protect Yourself
Use protective gear if you must care or go near someone you suspect has Ebola.

Report
Report any suspicious symptoms in yourself or anyone elseIMMEDIATELY you notice them. Don’t delay!!

Educate Everyone
Tell your neighbours, colleagues and domestic staff. You’re safer when everyone is educated about Ebola.