Finally a cure for Ebola? 11 Patients Cured - Health Minister

Fifty days since the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) was imported into Nigeria through Lagos, and 38 days since it was introduced into Port Harcourt, the federal government yesterday announced that it had successfully treated 11 patients infected with the virus.

Giving an update on the virus yesterday in Abuja, the minister of health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, told journalists that all the cases that have been confirmed in Nigeria are traceable to the index case, the Liberian-American Mr Patrick Sawyer.

He said, “The total number of patients who have been successfully managed and discharged stands at nine. The latest is the sister of the Port Harcourt doctor who was discharged from the isolation ward in Rivers State yesterday.”

According to the minister, the nine patients successfully managed and discharged are among the total number of 11 survivors of EVD in Nigeria.

He said at the moment, only one person, the wife of the Port Harcourt doctor is on treatment in the isolation ward in Lagos.

“She no longer has any symptoms and is undergoing series of tests preparatory to her discharge from the isolation ward this week.”

Also, the minister said that the fiancé of one of Patrick Sawyer’s contacts who was confirmed positive for EVD with only mild symptoms has since recovered from the illness.

“He was weakened after the death of his fiancée but tests on the deceased were ‘unequivocal’ which revealed she died from Ebola. He was quarantined but was not placed on active treatment,” the health minister said.

Chukwu also disclosed that as at yesterday morning, the total number of confirmed cases of EVD in Nigeria is 19; 15 in Lagos and four in Port Harcourt, saying that the 19th case is the fiancé of one of the primary contacts of Mr Sawyer who died of the disease.

Similarly, he said the total number of deaths from EVD in Nigeria stands at seven; five of this number died in Lagos, one in a private hospital, the index case Mr Sawyer, and the other four in the isolation ward in Lagos State.

He explained, “Two of the seven died in Port Harcourt, the medical doctor who died in a private hospital and the contact, a patient in the hospital at the time the doctor was also on admission, who died in the isolation ward in Rivers State.”

Regarding contacts currently under surveillance, the minister said that Lagos had 27 contacts on surveillance as of now.

“A total of 339 contacts who were previously on surveillance have been discharged having completed 21 days of observation.”

“Port Harcourt has 477 contacts under surveillance. It is a mixed group consisting of tertiary and quaternary contacts of Mr. Sawyer’s. Five contacts have already been discharged from surveillance in Port Harcourt having completed 21 days of observation.” The minister also addressed the rumoured EVD outbreak in some parts of the country, saying, “In the last one week, a number of EVD rumours have been investigated and all the cases have turned out to be Ebola negative. Specifically, the rumours in Kebbi, Kaduna, Lagos, Lagos, Oyo, Ebonyi, Delta and Sokoto states as well as the Federal Capital Territory have all been debunked,” he said.


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