By Abiose Adelaja Adams
The minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, has announced the discharge of the eighth patient with Ebola virus disease, EVD, from the Lagos isolation ward and a new death in Port Harcourt, River State.
While giving an update on the status of disease in the country on Wednesday, the minister said the newly discharged patient is the spouse of one of primary contact of the index case, who happens to be the first secondary contact to be diagnosed of the disease.
“The total number of cases successfully managed and discharged is now eight (8). (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).”
However, Official is still under observation and has thus not been officially declared a survivor.
The death toll from Ebola has also increased from five last week to seven. The additions are the late Port Harcourt doctor, Iyke Emenuo, who treated the ECOWAS official, and a female patient who was on admission in the same hospital where the late Port Harcourt doctor was also admitted.
“One, the index case, occurred in a private hospital in Lagos, four in the Lagos isolation ward, one 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 was the doctor who was infected by the ECOWAS official in Port Harcourt and who did not come under the care and management of the Incident Management Committee,” Onyebuchi stated.
The total number of confirmed cases of Ebola Disease in Nigeria has also increased from 13 to eighteen.
He announced further: “The 18th confirmed case is the sister of the late Port Harcourt doctor. Total number of EVD patients currently under treatment is two, one in the Lagos isolation ward and another one in the Port Harcourt isolation ward. Also, 320 persons have been discharged in Lagos after they were observed for 21 days, while 41 are currently under surveillance. Port Harcourt however has two hundred and fifty five (255) contact under surveillance.”