Nigeria Confirms 7 Cases Of Deadly Ebola Virus

Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, has revealed that seven cases of the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, have been confirmed in Nigeria.

The Minister, in a statement issued on Wednesday, disclosed that, “The first one was the index case-the imported case from Liberia of which the victim is now late,” adding that on Tuesday, 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.”

Chukwu said, “The other five cases are currently being treated at the Isolation ward in Lagos.”

Speaking further in the release, the Minister noted that, “It is pertinent to note that:

i. All the Nigerians diagnosed of the EVD were primary contacts of the index case.

ii. The 24/7 Emergency Operations Centre which I intimated you of in my last press conference will be fully functional by tomorrow. It will be headed by Dr. Faisal Shuaibu as the Incident Manager. He will later today lead a 6-man inter-agency team drawn from National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the US CDC, the WHO, UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Lagos to complete the setting up of the Centre. They will be joined by the other personnel from the Lagos State Government and the federal hospitals in the Lagos area as well as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

“I have also appointed a Director of Communication and Community Mobilization who will be based in Lagos- Prof. O. Onajole of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

We are embarking on recruiting additional health personnel to strengthen the team who are currently managing the situation in Lagos.

“We are making arrangements to procure Isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

We are also setting up a special team to provide counseling and psychosocial support to patients, identified contacts and their families.

“Within the week, the Honourable Minister of Information and I would be visiting Lagos State to assess the situation on ground.

“I wish to once again reassure Nigerians that the Government is working hard to ensure the containment of the outbreak.”