Another nurse contracts Ebola

• 177 now under surveillance, 10 cases confirmed
• Jonathan cautions against handling corpses
• Spain gets U.S. trial drug to treat patient
TWENTY-TWO days after the Federal Government confirmed the presence of Ebola in the country, another nurse has contracted the disease.
The nurse, who was one of those who treated the late Patrick Sawyer, had been under surveillance in her husband’s place. She has now been quarantined, while the husband has been placed under surveillance. She lives alone with her husband. They have just been newly married.
The nurse is now among the list of 10 cases so far confirmed in Nigeria, while her husband who was living in the same house with her, has joined a list of 177 persons under surveillance for different levels of contact with Sawyer (through direct, primary or tertiary contacts).
The confirmed cases of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease ( EVD) seem to be growing by the day. All the confirmed cases so far are those who participated in treating Sawyer who brought the disease to Nigeria.
And following well-established World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols some of the individuals receiving treatment in Lagos are getting better from the Ebola disease, officials confirmed yesterday.
The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, briefed reporters alongside his colleagues from the Ministries of Information, Environment, Youth and Interior in Abuja where the latest updates were given.
Meanwhile, Spain has imported a United States-made experimental Ebola drug to treat a Spanish missionary priest evacuated from Liberia last week after testing positive for the killer virus.
Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. of San Diego, was obtained in Geneva this weekend and brought to Madrid to treat Miguel Pajares. The 75-year-old priest was placed in isolation Thursday at Madrid’s Carlos III Hospital.
Spain said it obtained permission from the laboratory developing the drug and, under an agreement between WHO and the Doctors Without Borders charity group, imported the drug from Geneva where it said a dose had been available. The ministry said Spain sought the drug under legislation permitting use of unauthorised medication in patients suffering from a life-threatening illness who cannot be treated satisfactorily with any authorised drug.
Briefing the press yesterday, Chukwu said: “The 10th case actually was one of the nurses who also had primary contact with the index case. When she got ill, we brought her into isolation. We just tested her at the weekend. So that is what made it 10. So between Friday and today we had one additional case. So that brings it to 10 and the 10 includes the index case. It also includes the nurse, the only Nigerian so far who has died from the disease.”
Asked to confirm why the nurse was under surveillance in her house with the attendant risks, Chukwu said: “That someone is in her husband’s house does not mean she is not under surveillance. The husband is presently under surveillance, only the husband. They are newly married. And only two of them live in the house.”
He gave a background to the briefing: “It has been 22 days since EVD first landed in Nigeria. As at today, 177 primary and secondary contacts of the index case have been placed under surveillance or isolation. Nine developed EVD, bringing the total number of cases in Nigeria to 10. Of these 10, two have died (the Liberian American and the Nigerian nurse) while eight are alive and currently on treatment.
“On Sunday, the 20th July, 2014, a Liberian-American Financial Consultant with the Liberian Ministry of Finance, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, who was under surveillance in Liberia for a suspected case of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), evaded the authorities in Monrovia and tragically boarded for Lagos in Nigeria, via Lome in Togo and Accra in Ghana. His intention was to connect to Calabar in Nigeria to attend a two-day retreat organised by the ECOWAS Commission, and later the same week to Atlanta Georgia in the USA to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. However, because of the protocols initiated in all our ports since the EVD outbreak in the three countries of the sub-region since March this year, Mr. Sawyer was flagged at the point of disembarkation in Lagos. He was then accordingly quarantined and transferred to a hospital in Lagos, straight from the airport, for further actions.
“Twenty-four hours later, Mr. Sawyer who had by then developed the full complement of the EVD symptoms also tested positive for the Ebola Virus at the laboratory of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), and died three days later on the 24th of July, 2014. By then, the National Ebola Virus Response Plan already in place had been activated and all the 48 passengers who had flown to Nigeria with the late Mr. Sawyer were traced through an elaborate contact tracing mechanism. Also, 22 others (among whom, were the health personnel who treated the late American) were promptly identified, isolated and monitored for symptoms and tests of the EVD.”
He went on: “Unfortunately, out of the initial 70 under both surveillance and isolation, nine of them developed symptoms of Ebola and were confirmed to have EVD by the same laboratory at LUTH. Tragically, one of them, a nurse, passed away on Wednesday the 6th of August , 2014.
“Within the initial 48 hours of the death of this first Nigerian from EVD, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan approved the National Ebola Virus Disease Emergency Containment Plan with an immediate cash backing of N1.9 billion which is about $12 million to further complement the containment efforts already in place.

“The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies, works very closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local authorities and other international partners to further deepen and broaden these containment efforts. We shall single out the WHO and the CDC for special commendation for their understanding and continuous support in this challenging moment; particularly for the partnership and most importantly for the capacity building of our Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)
“Nigeria wishes to emphasise that, it essentially remained an Ebola Virus free country until this incident of importation and unfortunate contamination. We will continue to work with all stakeholders, local and international partners to maximise on this and intensify efforts to contain and treat the existing cases.
“At the sub-regional level, the EVD was discussed as a substantive agenda during the summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government on the 9th of July 2014 in Accra Ghana. Nigeria played, as usual, its leading, pioneering and compassionate role during the summit with the first and only donation of $3.5 million humanitarian and capacity building aid to the three affected countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the West African Health Organization (WAHO), and the ECOWAS Ebola Fund.
“The Liberian government has expressed its deepest sympathies and regrets that Mr. Sawyer had even embarked on this tragic journey, which has brought needless sufferings, death and has placed an unnecessary stress on our health system. In the same spirit, we share in solidarity, the grief of the governments and people of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone as we confront this challenge together.”
Chukwu said Nigeria had reached out to all local and international laboratories where researches on Ebola drugs were ongoing, noting that Nigeria’s National Health Ethics Code allowed the deployment of such trial drugs in medical emergency situations like the one the country was facing.
“We are optimistic that one of the trial drugs would come in soon,” Chukwu said,
The National Council on Health commenced an emergency meeting yesterday to work out modalities to further curtail the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria.
Chukwu said that the meeting, made up of all the 36 state commissioners for health, and the Federal Capital Territory, would focus on strategies that would ensure that the disease does not spread outside the locations where there are confirmed cases.
Besides, President Goodluck Jonathan has urged Nigerians not to panic over the Ebola disease.
Jonathan who commissioned the National Trauma Centre in Abuja yesterday, said: “ It will also be appropriate, at this time, to say a few words about the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak which has taken the lives of many in some West African countries and of which we have recorded two deaths here in Nigeria. It is regrettable that the emergence of the disease on our shores was due to migratory transmission.
“It is important that we avoid panic and take the highest possible care in hygiene and contact, and by adhering to guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health. We have put measures and facilities in place for detection and management and are working in concert with the international community to stem its spread. We must remain at high alert.”
On another occasion, the president said he had concluded arrangements to meet with the 36 states governors and their commissioners for health to discuss and map out strategies and ensure that every state is prepared.
At the National Interfaith Conference in Abuja, Jonathan urged Nigerians to ignore the rumours that drinking and bathing with salt water prevents or cures Ebola virus, warning that such could be very injurious to health as it is capable of raising people’s blood pressure.
Jonathan reiterated his earlier announcement that the movement of corpses from one community to another, and from overseas into the country be stopped forthwith.
He said: “It is unfortunate that one man imported the Ebola to us. During my conversation with the Director General of the World Health Organisation, he told me that 60 percent of the infections were contracted during burials, that was why in my announcement, we pleaded that we be careful the way we handle corpses, some people believe in some kind of ceremonies , this is not the time to do such ceremonies. If somebody dies, let him be buried where he died. If it is compulsory that they get the corpse, may be after some months, we will exhume the body. Patrick Sawyer who brought the disease to Nigeria contracted it during a burial and was under surveillance in his country. He was advised not to travel but the man ignored the advice and decided to come to Nigeria. We are doing our best to contain the spread of this virus.”
The president who urged religious leaders to pray and sensitise their congregations to the Ebola virus in their various churches and mosques, called for even greater vigilance and co-operation at all levels to stop the Ebola virus from spreading further.