Re: Nigeria - 3 new suspected ebola cases: 2 in Lagos, 1 in in Kaduna
Re: Nigeria - 3 new suspected ebola cases: 2 in Lagos, 1 in in Kaduna
....?We have 12 confirmed cases and that includes the index (first) case and all the other cases that we have confirmed positive and those who have died. And today, we have four more patients ready for discharge, and they have gone through the same protocol ? the protocol is that before we release anyone or certify him or her negative, he or she has to be symptoms-free for over three days. Also, we had to test their blood and the result proved negative of the virus.
?They will be released today (yesterday) after they have completed their counselling exercise being conducted by our psycho-social team, but they will come periodically for check-ups; though they are okay.?
Three others in Isolation
Assuring that everything was under control, the commissioner said the new cases were being closely monitored.
?The other three patients are still being monitored at the isolation centre. Once they get better, they will be released too.
?The lady who ran to Enugu is still in isolation and has tested positive to the virus. She is among the three still under isolation.?
Three quarantined in Makurdi
Meanwhile, two missionary workers and their driver have been quarantined at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, BSUTH, Makurdi, the Benue state capital, on suspicion of infection with Ebola virus.
Chief Medical Director of BSUTH, Professor Orkurga Malu, who disclosed this to newsmen in Makurdi, dispelled rumours that the quarantined persons were infected with the virus.
Malu explained that Benue indigenes who hitherto resided in Monrovia for a year where they engaged in missionary work, relocated from the Liberian capital in the wake of the Ebola outbreak.
?There is no truth that some Benue indigenes from Monrovia, Liberia are victims of the deadly Ebola virus.
What happened is that since some airlines have shut down operations to Liberia, the couple and their driver had to take a connecting flight from their base to Accra, Ghana where they stayed for a week before travelling to Nigeria.?
While refusing to disclose the identity of the persons concerned, Malu said, on arrival in the state, they were quickly admitted in the hospital and have been kept under close observation.
?They have not shown any symptoms of the disease because at every stage their temperature is checked and tested right from Monrovia before they boarded the plane to Ghana and then Nigeria.
?Since they came in here on Thursday, we have been testing them on a daily basis and there is no evidence of temperature rise or any of the symptoms of the virus.
?So we are 99.9 per cent sure that they do not have Ebola virus. But just in the remotest case of 0.1 percent, we have kept them to ensure they do not have the disease,? he stated.
The CMD who urged the people of the state not to panic assured that the hospital has adequate facilities to cater for any victim of the virus.
