The Lagos State Government has said on Monday that 59 people, including the Nigerian Ambassador to Liberia, Chigozie Obi-Nnadozie, had contact with the late Patrick Sawyer, who died of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Lagos last Thursday.
Sawyer’s was the first recorded case of the deadly virus in Nigeria. He died in Lagos while on his way to Calabar from Liberia for an official engagement.
The revelation concerning the number of contacts with the victim is coming the same day the Federal Government assuaged people’s fears about a possible spread of the virus in the country.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday in Alausa, Lagos, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said so far, a total of 59 contacts have been registered consisting of 44 hospital contacts made of 38 healthcare workers and six laboratory staff.
Others, he said, include 15 airport contacts, comprising of three ECOWAS staff-driver, liaison, and protocol officers, two nursing staff and five airport passenger handlers.
According to Idris, “as of the time of this report, 20 contacts had been physically screened of which 50 percent are type 1 contact and 50 percent had type 2 contact.
“Airline manifest has not been provided by the airline at the time of this report and therefore the precise number of passenger contacts is yet to be ascertained, especially as two flights were involved (Monrovia-Lome and Lome-Lagos).”
He said Sawyer, a Liberian, had arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos from Monrovia via Lome on Asky Airline Flight No KP50. He was on his way to Calabar for the 8th ECOWAS Retreat of Heads of Offices meeting, as a senior ECOWAS official in Liberia.
Idris said the victim’s plane was reported to have had a brief stop in Accra, ghana and Lome, Togo and the aircraft was changed at Lome. While on board, Sawyer fell ill and remained very ill on arrival at the airport in Lagos. He was then assisted by various airport and ECOWAS protocol staff to the First Consultant Medical Centre, Obalende, a private hospital in Lagos.
The Commissioner said an initial diagnosis of suspected Viral Haemorrhagic fever was made at the hospital. He was admitted and investigations were carried out while treatment commenced.
The private hospital also notified the State Ministry of Health which also notified the Federal Ministry of Health. Unfortunately, the victim did not survive.
Dr. Idris disclosed that an isolation ward had been created by the State Ministry of Health at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba for effective management of cases and that three other health facilities were being worked on for the same purpose.
He added that a total of 100 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were procured by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and distributed to the private hospital which handled the case and the State Ministry of Health. He disclosed that the World Health Organisation also donated 250 PPEs to the NCDC/FMOH.
“Adhering strictly to WHO guidelines, the body of the deceased patient was decontaminated using 10 percent sodium hypochloride and cremated, with the permission of the government of Liberia,”Idris said.
“A cremation urn has been prepared for dispatch to the family. The vehicle that conveyed the remains was also fully decontaminated.”
He however said that such contacts does not mean that some Nigerians had been infected, but that all the contacts were being actively monitored.
He said preliminary laboratory investigation conducted by the NCDC AI virology laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and that of the World-Bank Funded African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) of the Redeemers’ University, had shown a viral DNA and that both blood and urine samples obtained from the patients were positive for the Pan Filo virus analysis and Ebola Zaire MGB virus strain- specific analysis. He added that a confirmation test was being carried out on the samples in the WHO collaborating laboratory for Ebola in Dakar.
Idris disclosed that the Joint Federal and State Team on the basis of all experiences gathered from the response to the outbreak recommended to mobilise funding for response activities, logistics and supplies to train and orientate health staff on the Ebola outbreak response Standards Operating Procedures and supply laboratory diagnostic supplies or activate the mobile VHF laboratory.
Other recommendations, he said, were to provide adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), organise psychosocial support and provide incentives to health personnel involved in Ebola outbreak response; design key messages in the local language and intensify public enlightenment in the local languages and involve the community in response activities.
He urged Nigerians to be calm as both the state and federal governments are ensuring that no Nigerian is affected by the virus.
