Ebola in Rivers, ECOWAS Official May Face Manslaughter Charges

Ebola in Rivers, ECOWAS Official May Face Manslaughter Charges

30 Aug 2014
By James Emejo
 

The Nigerian diplomat attached to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Olubukun Koye who escaped from quarantine in Lagos after testing positive to Ebola virus and travelled to Port Harcourt for treatment, an action that resulted in the death of the doctor who treated him (Iyke Enemuo) may face manslaughter charges.

This is coming on the heels of report that the number of persons under surveillance in the state for Ebola Virus Disease has increased from 100 to 160.

Sources told THISDAY that the issue of Koye (a primary contact of the index case, late Liberian Partick Sawyer) who defied instruction not to leave Lagos after being placed in the isolation unit, was discussed at the Federal Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday and that the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Mohammed Adoki was directed to look into the Nigerian laws and see how he could be sanctioned for his action that resulted in the death of Enemuo.

The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samson Parker while giving an update on the EVD in the state, after recording its first death from Ebola last week Friday, disclosed that the surveillance list had increased to 160.

He said the state’s contact tracing team was working seriously to make sure that the spread of the EVD was contained in the state.

Parker also gave further insight into how the dreaded EVD crept into the state and claimed its first victim.

He said the late Enemuo was aware that Koye, whom he treated, had evaded the surveillance team in Lagos to travel to Port Harcourt.

[snip]

Parker said Koye had returned to Lagos where the surveillance group saw him and tested him of the EVD and that he had tested negative.

He said Koye neither disclosed to the people that he travelled to Port Harcourt nor that he had treated himself of the disease.

According to the commissioner, “When news got to Koye that the doctor that treated him in Port Harcourt had died, he collapsed. It was then he opened up and confessed that Dr. Enemuo had treated him when he travelled to Port Harcourt. He confessed that he sneaked out of Lagos to Port Harcourt”.

However, the authorities of the isolation centre in Lagos never disclosed to the public that an ebola positive patient had escaped from the centre when the incident occured. This information is only just coming to light following the death of a doctor in Port Harcourt... 
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/ebola-in-rivers-ecowas-official-may-face-manslaughter-charges/187726/

Home » News » TAN’s rally for Jonathan is firing squad –Rivers groups

TAN’s rally for Jonathan is firing squad –Rivers groups

The Rivers State Chapter of All Progressive Congress (APC) and  Ikwerre Citizens for Democratic Movement (ICDM) have declared their opposition to a pro-Jonathan rally scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt today.

The Transformation Ambassador of Nigeria (TAN) a group supporting President Good Luck Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015 is billed to hold its South–South rally in the Rivers State capital.

But the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other groups in the state have described the rally as untimely and an avenue to spread the Ebola virus disease, following the outbreak in the state.

  Reacting in Port Harcourt yesterday, the State Chairman of APC, Dr. Davies Ikanya, said the rally is nothing but a firing squad against the people.

He said as a party, the leadership of the APC in the state was not afraid of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but was only concerned about the threat it poses to the lives of residents of the Garden City.

Ikanya said: “The rally is a firing squad, it is an invitation to death. The same people who said the public  should avoid crowd and that they are committed to the fight against Ebola is today organising a rally in Rivers State when they are aware of the outbreak of the disease in the state.

“We are committed and we are not threatened by their coming. I think the group who said they are going to protest against the rally by tomorrow has a point.

“The President should be thinking about how to assist the state government to fight Ebola instead of organising political rallies.”

The President General of Ikwerre Citizens for Democratic Movement (ICDM), Comrade Prince Obiajunwo Dike, said the group had given President Jonathan up till 11 pm yesterday to call off the rally or see himself as one of  the enemies of Rivers people.

He said the people of Rivers State, especially the youths, were being mobilised to barricade the Elekahia Stadium venue of the rally in the interest of Rivers State.

Dike said even the President is aware that there is an outbreak of Ebola in the state, which he said had rendered the rally unnecessary in order to prevent further spread of EVD in the state.

He said he expected the Federal Government to focus on the pressing needs in the state and not to play politics with the lives of the people.

  He said: “As far as I am concerned, the rally will not hold in the state. If they go ahead to hold the rally by tomorrow, then Jonathan hates Rivers people.

“We will mobilise against them. We don’t mind if our action leads to an uproar tomorrow.”

 Meanwhile, stakeholders in the health sector  in the state have said that the government was yet to provide safety measures to contain the  spread of the EVD  in the state.

They expressed fears that some people in the state who had contracted the decease were yet to be located for quarantine. ...

He also revealed that two women visited the late Dr. Ikechukwu Sam Enemuo’s wife and left the widow’s house to a supermarket at Government House but were yet to be traced.

He said: “The most important thing now is awareness. There were two women who visited the wife of the deceased, but nothing has been done about them.

“They ought to have been quarantined or placed on surveillance. Such a big super  http://thenationonlineng.net/new/tans-rally-for-jonathan-is-firing-squad-rivers-groups/

Alpha Kanu, Miatta Kargbo and Deaths Announced by the Three MRU Countries

...No..w, we note utterance of Alhaji Alpha Kanu against this newspaper up in Parliament on August 14th.  This is second time he is threatening us with legal action over Ebola coverage. This time, he is threatening under the guise of the State of Public Emergency. What a shameless man!After he lies, he threatens to jail those who question his lies? Unbelievable display of shameless bullying!

Now, we would like Information Minister Alhaji Alpha Kanu to tell this country whether any appeal was made to the wife of America’s Vice-President, Dr. Jill Biden, during her last month visit, about urgent need for the international community to help with Ebola Epidemic? Did anyone raise Ebola assistance issue with Dr. Jill Biden? If not, is it because it was being downplayed then?

Going by just one example of a local authority, the position of this newspaper is that it is sad to see  Alpha Kanu &  Health Minister Miatta Kargbo, continue to propagate under-reported figures of Ebola deaths in Sierra Leone.

Paramount Chief of Jawei Chiefdom, P.C. Musa Ngoumbuklah Kallon II has handed over to this newspaper a signed copy of number of Ebola deaths in his chiefdom, including suspected and probable deaths. The number of probable and suspected Ebola deaths in Jawei chiefdom alone, is in excess of the  insulting figures released by certain government officials as national totals.

The editor of this newspaper hails from Jawei Chiefdom and has first hand experience of how almost 200 deaths have affected his chiefdom people. One of our parliamentary interns hails from Kissi Teng and also has first hand experience of the high number of deaths in that Kissi area...

Sierra Leone News : Koindu Town Chief Dies as Ebola Makes a U-turn in Kissi Teng

By Augustine Samba & Jeneba V. Kabba Aug 29, 2014, 17:12

The Town of Koindu in the Kissi Teng Chiefdom Kailahun District, Chief Moses Foryoh who doubles as Bursar of the Kissi Bendu Secondary School, on Thursday 28th August 2014 died at the Kaiya Ebola Isolation Center in Koindu. The death of the chief has created panic and standstill in the Koindu Township and its environs according to sources. Relatives of the deceased told our reporters that he just collapsed last Wednesday and was taken to the isolation center for medical examinations.

“He did not complain of any sickness, he fell down just after bath and as we rushed to help him the medical personnel advised us not to touch him and was taken to the isolation center” our source revealed.  

Chief Moses Foryoh popularly known as ‘American’

Nearly ninety residents including two local authorities in Kissi Teng Chiefdom alone have died since the outbreak of the Ebola disease in May this year. BBC Focus on Africa last evening quoted World Health Organization (WHO) as saying about twenty thousand people may likely contact the Ebola Disease before it will be contained in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Over three thousand people have already been infected and nearly fifteen hundred people have died in the three countries.

Kissi Teng Chiefdom in Sierra Leone shares borders with Guinea and Liberia around where the Ebola outbreak was first detected in the country. Few weeks ago, residents of Kissi Teng told this newspaper that the Ebola crisis was relative calm and according to them nobody was infected with the virus for quiet some weeks.

However, as recently as three weeks, the community that was calm has lost its Local Councilor and some other residents including the Town Chief. http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200526098.shtml

Ebola experts recommend the reopening of borders

Kinshasa, 29/08/2014 / Africa

The borders must be open, but with better sanitary control of the crossings. All consider border closures decided by the Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau as useless and rather damaging.

Close the borders to prevent the spread or open to allow a coordinated response to the epidemic and allow the passage of humanitarian? This is the dilemma for experts and Ministers of Health of the countries of ECOWAS, meeting in Accra, Ghana last Thursday to talk about Ebola. The epidemic claimed 1,552 deaths, according to the latest report of the World Health Organization.

All the talk of health experts as political were unanimous Thursday in Accra, Ghana, which brought together Ministers of Health of the countries of the Economic Community of the West Africa (ECOWAS): the borders should be open, but with better sanitary control of the crossings. All consider border closures decided by the Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau as useless and rather damaging. They fear a social and humanitarian crisis: NGOs can not access the affected countries and their equipment does not happen again. The Ministers of Health of Liberia and Sierra Leone have also not been able to come to Accra for lack of commercial flights available.

"Do not ostracize" affected countries

Ghanaian President, Chairman of ECOWAS, has reiterated: there must be a coordinated response to deal with the epidemic. "Ebola branded our country. We have no choice but to combine our efforts and resources to combat it, "he has said. John Dramani Mahama denounced the isolation in which the affected countries were set by their neighbors, saying it must implement containment measures that "do not ostracize" contaminated countries. But he also notes the impact of these measures on uncontaminated countries, "Nations that depend largely on tourism recorded cancellations of visits even though there are no reported cases on their ground," said the president of ECOWAS.

Consequently border closures: some places have become inaccessible to health agencies - a situation that could change as the Ministers in Accra agreed to the establishment of humanitarian corridors. The experts also recommended close monitoring of patients and their families, which will appease neighboring countries not yet affected by the virus.

The "against-productive" measures

Resume sailings from countries to countries affected. Shared by the association Doctors Without Borders, which also denounced the quarantine areas or entire regions opinion:

"The quarantine measures (...), who seem to leave good intentions of public health, are against-productive, assures Claire Magone, communication director for MSF France, currently serving in Sierra Leone. All these measures to isolate the affected communities not affected communities, they make sense in cases where the epidemic is highly localized. But there it is extended. Being able to seal the borders, it is a bit of a medieval idea. And finally, she says, these measures also have an effect against-productive because they worry because they are scary. Because for someone who faces the harsh reality of the diagnosis of the disease, know that you will be rewarded for going to notify you to the health center to accept you isolate, manage and that during this time, your family will be locked up for 21 days, it's still a rather qu'incitative "discouraging measure.

$ 200 million pledged by the African Development Bank

ECOWAS needs money to stem the epidemic. Many health centers in Liberia and Sierra Leone can not accommodate patients. Must be recruited in emergency health personnel and implement quarantine measures in some areas. A solidarity fund has been set up in July, but only two of the fifteen countries of ECOWAS members have yet participated. The African Development Bank has pledged more than $ 200 million, the field agents are eagerly awaiting.

In Accra, representatives from several countries have admitted to have realized too late the danger. A symbolic gesture in Accra could be decided finally proof of their willingness to act: sending medical teams of the sub-region as reinforcements in infected areas. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitalcongo.net%2F&edit-text=

...Parker also revealed that the late Dr Iyke Enemuo, who died of Ebola disease, last week Friday, in Port Harcourt was aware that Olu Ibikunle Koye, a Nigerian diplomat, working with the Economic Community of West Arican States (ECOWAS), was a carrier of the Ebola virus.
Speaking further, Parker said, “He (Koye) had received the late Dr Patrick Sawyer (the Liberian-American who transmitted the virus) in Lagos. Upon developing the symptom, he confided in a female colleague, called Lillian, who contacted the late Dr Enemuo.
“It was after contact was established with Dr. Enemuo that Olu Ibikunle Koye flew to Port Harcourt to see Dr Enemuo,” he said.
According to the health commissioner, to conceal his movement, Koye, who had been quarantined along with other people for having primary contact with Sawyer, sneaked out of the isolation unit and took a flight to Port Harcourt and switched off  his phone so that he cannot be reached or traced.
Parker said, on arrival in Port Harcourt, Koye obfuscated being traced, checked into a Mandate Gardens, a local hotel in the Rumunokoro area in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, within the vicinity where Enemuo’s private health facility, Sam Steel Clinic, was located.
“From what we have gathered so far, Dr Enemuo, knowing full well that Koye was positive of the Ebola virus, took some measures of precaution to protect himself while treating Koye.
“Knowing the enormity of what he was doing, Dr Enemuo, upon Koye’s departure for Lagos, poured bleach all over the room that Koye slept in order to sanitise the place.
“Upon developing the Ebola symptom, Dr Enemuo approached one of our colleagues for treatmemt at Green Heart Hospital, along Evboh Road, in the GRA. Dr Enemuo did not tell the doctor that was treating him the truth. He merely told him that he had fever. He lied. He did not tell the doctor that was treating him his full story.
“But the doctor, a nice and conscientious professional, suspected that Dr Enemuo was either hiding something or was suffering from a strange ailment because he proved negative to malaria, fever and typhoid fever.
“To be sure of what he was doing, he spoke to other very experienced doctors about the strange case he was handling in his hospital. He even invited some of his colleagues to come over to his hospital to study Dr Enemuo’s medical history.
“Of course, the news of the Ebola virus was everywhere. So, they were afraid to go. None of them showed up at the hospital where Dr Enemuo was being treated. His condition continued to deteriorate and he eventually died and his body was taken to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH),” he said.
The Commissioner for Health further said when news got to Koye that the doctor that treated him in Port Harcourt had died, he collapsed and it was then  that he opened up and confessed that Enemuo had treated him when he travelled to Port Harcourt...
http://www.tribune.com.ng/news/top-stories/item/14743-ebola-in-rivers-160-now-under-surveillance-late-doctor-s-wife-moved-to-lagos

US Plans Trial of Ebola Vaccine in Nigeria,Gambia and Mali

 Today at 12:01 PM.

WASHINGTON –  Federal researchers next week will start testing humans with an experimental vaccine to prevent the deadly Ebola virus.

The National Institutes of Health announced Thursday that it is launching the safety trial on a vaccine developed by the agency's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline. Beginning Tuesday, it will test 20 healthy adult volunteers to see if the virus is safe and triggers an adequate response in their immune systems.

Even though NIH has been testing other Ebola vaccines in people since 2003, this is a first for this vaccine and its trial has been speeded up because the outbreak in West Africa "is a public health emergency that demands an all-hands-on-deck response," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID.

This isn't a treatment for the disease, but a hoped-for preventative measure. Fauci said the vaccine cannot cause Ebola in the volunteers being tested.

He cautioned that there is no guarantee it will work: "I have been fooled enough in my many years of experience."

Fauci doesn't expect results from this initial round of testing until the end of the year, emphasizing that public health measures such as quarantine, isolation, infection control and personal protective devices are still the best way to fight the outbreak that so far has killed at least 1,552 people in West Africa.

The World Health Organization Thursday estimated that the death toll could eventually exceed 20,000, while announcing new efforts to fight what Fauci called the "rapidly evolving and currently uncontrolled outbreak."

The major target of the vaccine, if it works, would be health care workers, although residents of the area could also be eligible for the shots, Fauci said. More than 240 health workers have become infected in this outbreak, and more than 120 have died, he said.

If it works, people would get one shot in the arm to protect them from an immediate threat and eventually a second shot for longer-term immunity, Fauci said.

Testing will be at NIH's campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and involve a mixture that uses both the current Zaire strain and another strain, Sudan. In the second week of September, NIH and a British team will test that vaccine on 100 volunteers in the United Kingdom; tests will commence in Gambia and Mali in the middle of the month. American health officials are also talking about a future trial in Nigeria.

Then a different version of the vaccine, using only the Zaire strain, will be tested on another 20 adults in October at NIH and elsewhere in the United States.

Also sometime in fall, Canadian and U.S. health officials will start safety testing a different type of Ebola vaccine developed by NewLink Genetics Corp. of Ames, Iowa.

The U.S. vaccine takes a single protein from the Ebola virus and pairs it with a chimpanzee cold virus to help as a delivery system. Past vaccines have the used the same protein but different delivery systems.

Usually, the second stage of drug trials involve testing on larger numbers of people before it goes into final testing.

A British consortium has pledged $4.6 million to help speed up the vaccine tests. With some of that money, GlaxoSmithKline will be able to begin manufacturing up to 10,000 doses of the U.S. vaccine, if the tests are successful. The 10,000 doses will be ready by the end of the year and if needed, production can be ramped up for stockpiling, GSK spokeswoman Sarah Alspach said.

This testing "is exactly what needs to be done," said Pardis Sabeti, a Harvard University professor who has been studying Ebola and was in Africa working the outbreak. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/08/28/us-to-begin-human-testing-ebola-vaccine-next-week/

Two Japanese with suspected Ebola symptoms hospitalized in Moldova

http://en.itar-tass.com/world/747222

August 29, 15:05 UTC+4
The Japanese citizens flew from Japan to Moldova via IstanbulCHISINAU, August 29./ITAR-TASS/.Two Japanese citizens with suspected Ebola symptoms were taken from Chisinau airport to a Moldovan clinic on Friday, Moldovan border guard police said.
The passengers had signs similar to the Ebola virus-caused disease, including a high temperature. They confirmed that they began feeling unwell after returning from southern Africa where they were on a business trip, the border guard press service said.
The Japanese citizens flew from Japan to Moldova via Istanbul.
They were taken to the Moldovan National Public Health Centre.

Ghana to become Ebola nerve centre

2014-08-30 10:03

Accra - The Ghanaian presidency has announced that the United Nations will use Ghana as a base for supplies bound for countries stricken by the Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 1 550 people in West Africa.
More than 3 000 people have been infected since the virus was detected in the remote jungles of southeastern Guinea early this year and it has quickly spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria and Senegal reported its first case on Friday.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon had a telephone conversation with Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, who agreed to let international agencies use Ghana's capital as a base for air lifting supplies and personnel to affected countries.

Mahama chairs the West African regional grouping, Ecowas, which has set up a solidarity fund to fight the deadly disease.
"Using Accra as the logistics and co-ordination centre will open a vital corridor to get urgently needed supplies and health personnel into the affected countries and areas," a statement said.
Regular international commercial flights to the affected countries have been suspended, making it difficult for supplies to reach them.
The statement said the UN and local authorities would work closely to put in place appropriate screening and prevention measures to avoid any adverse effects on Ghana as a result of the international operations.
The UN will also help review and strengthen Ghana's Ebola preparedness as steps are taken to prevent the virus from spreading to that country, according to the statement. http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Ghana-to-become-Ebola-nerve-centre-20140830

Ebola-hit Liberia bans sailors from disembarking

 August 30, 2014, 7:10 pm

 

Monrovia (AFP) - Liberia said on Saturday it would deny permission for any crew to disembark from ships at the country's four seaports until the Ebola epidemic ravaging west Africa was under control.

Sailors on commercial ships can normally ask for a "show pass" allowing them to get off the vessel and access the port but the documents are being withdrawn to curb the spread of the virus, said Matilda Parker, head of Liberia's ports authority.
"For vessels coming in we have cancelled show passes. Absolutely no one from on board vessels will be allowed down," she told AFP.
The country's four seaports, including the Freeport of Monrovia, would adopt a "zero tolerance" approach, Parker said, against an outbreak which has claimed 1,500 lives since the start of the year.
Liberia, the hardest-hit of five west African nations struggling with the epidemic, has seen almost 700 deaths.
"For the workers who are going onboard vessels, they are going through three layers of screening at the gate, at the security desk and also at the peer. They have been instructed not to get in contact with anybody on board," Parker added.
Monrovia's port is run by APM Terminals, which operates in 63 countries, as part of a deal committing the company to a $145 million investment including a 600-metre wharf and state-of-the-art container tracking technology.
The port -- known as the "gateway to Liberia's economy" -- handles the majority of imports in an economy which has to buy in almost all commodities, meaning the price of fuel, machinery, manufactured goods and food rely heavily on its smooth running.
ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steel producer and the first investor to enter post-war Liberia in 2005, has ploughed an estimated $75 million in Buchanan, the country's second-largest port. https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/world/a/24856656/

Liberia reopens Ebola-fear slum

30/08/2014 - 14:21:07

Crowds are cheering and celebrating in the streets after Liberian authorities reopened a slum where tens of thousands of people were barricaded amid the country’s Ebola outbreak.
Information minister Lewis Brown said lifting the quarantine does not mean there is no Ebola in the West Point slum.
But he added that authorities feel confident they can screen for the sick and that the community is now actively fighting the disease.
The slum of 50,000 people in Liberia’s capital was sealed off more than a week ago, sparking unrest and leaving many without access to food or safe water.
Liberia has been the hardest-hit of the five countries with Ebola cases in West Africa. Senegal announced its first case yesterday.  http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/liberia-reopens-ebola-fear-slum-640628.html

1.3m people in Ebola quarantine

The World Food Programme needs $70m to feed 1.3m people in Ebola quarantine

Reuters | 30 August, 2014 16:08

Residents of West Point neighbourhood, which has been quarantined following an outbreak of Ebola, receive food rations from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Monrovia August 28, 2014.
Image by: STRINGER / REUTERS

The World Food Programme needs to raise $70 million to feed 1.3 million people at risk from shortages in Ebola-quarantined areas in West Africa, with the agency's resources already stretched by several major humanitarian crises, its regional director said.

WFP's West Africa Director Denise Brown said the organisation was currently providing food for around 150,000 people in Ebola-striken nations but needed to rapidly scale that up as the worst ever epidemic of the virus advanced.
Senegal on Friday became the fifth country to confirm it had been touched by the outbreak that has infected more than 3,000 people - killing some 1,550 of them - since it was detected in March. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday the outbreak could infect a total of 20,000 people before it ends.
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have pledged to impose a 'cordon sanitaire' on the most affected communities in their joint border region, restricting travel to and from the areas and limiting their access to food supplies.
"We need $70 million. That's for 1.3 million people for three months," Brown told Reuters late on Friday. "We've agreed this morning...that we need to extend that because WHO is already talking about 6-9 months before this is contained."
Brown said the WFP would look from donations from major donors like the United States, the European Union, the World Bank and Japan, as well as from non-traditional benefactors such as Arab states.
She warned, however, that the agency's resources were already thinly stretched by major humanitarian crises in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and Central African Republic.
"I don't think the world has ever seen so many concurrent crisis on such a huge scale. The humanitarian community is stretched beyond belief," she said.
Brown said WFP started food distribution in Guinea around 4 months ago, and more recently in Liberia and Sierra Leone, mostly delivering food to isolation wards in hospitals before gradually increasing the scope of the mission.
Travel restrictions imposed by neighbouring African countries, notably Senegal - a regional hub for the humanitarian sector - had made it more difficult to get staff and supplies into the affected region, Brown said.
The operation was also made more challenging by precautions to stop the disease spreading and staff becoming infected.
"We don't want to go in and do a distribution for 10,000 people. We want small groups of people, which is going to be very hard for us to manage," Brown said. "Yes, it probably makes us a bit slower but we need to get this right."
The area of Liberia hardest-hit around the northern Lofa county include some of its main food producing regions and the quarantine imposed on this area has raised fears that supplies to the rest of the country will be restricted.
Brown said that prices for rice and cassava at one of the main markets in the capital Monrovia had already risen by around 30 percent and there were reports that farmers had not been able to plant their crops because of contagion fears, suggesting shortages were likely to worsen. http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2014/08/30/the-world-food-programme-needs-70m-to-feed-1.3m-people-in-ebola-quarantine

Late doctor knew diplomat had Ebola virus –Rivers

August 30, 2014 by Simon Utebor

The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samson Parker, says the late Dr. Samuel Enemou, who treated Olu Koye, a Nigerian diplomat with the Economic Community of West African States, was aware that the diplomat was a carrier of the deadly Ebola virus.

The commissioner stated this during a press conference in Port Harcourt on Friday evening.

Parker said, “He had received the late Dr. Patrick Sawyer in Lagos. Upon developing the symptom, confided in a female colleague, called Lilian, who contacted the late Enemuo. It was after contact was established with Dr. Enemuo that Olu Koye flew to Port Harcourt to see him.

“To conceal his movement, Koye, who had been quarantined among other people for having primary contact with the late Dr. Sawyer, the Liberian-American who transmuted the Ebola virus into Nigeria, sneaked out of the isolation unit where he was being observed and took a flight to Port Harcourt and switched off his phone so that he could not be reached or traced should he answer a call.”

On arrival in Port Harcourt, he said Koye checked into Mandate Gardens, a local hotel in the Rumunokoro area in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.

The hotel is within the Rumunokoro area where Dr. Enemuo’s private health facility, Sam Steel Clinic is located.

Parker added, “From what we have gathered so far, Dr. Enemuo, knowing that Koye was positive of the Ebola virus took some measures of precaution to protect himself while treating Koye.

“Knowing the enormity of what he was doing, Enemuo upon Koye’s departure for Lagos, poured bleach all over the room that Koye slept in order to sanitise the place.”

He said the deceased, after having developed the symptom, approached a colleague for treatment at Good Heart Hospital along Evo Road in G.R.A.

He said Enemuo did not tell the doctor that was treating him the truth, stressing that he merely told him that he had fever.

Parker said, “He lied. He did not tell the doctor that was treating him his full story. But the doctor, a nice and conscientious professional, suspected that Enemuo was either hiding something or was suffering from a strange ailment because he proved negative to malaria, fever and typhoid fever.

“To be sure of what he was doing, he spoke to other very experienced doctors about the strange case he was handling in his hospital.”

The commissioner said the doctor treating Enemuo even invited some his colleagues to come over to his hospital to study Enemuo’s medical history.

He said because the news of the Ebola virus was all everywhere, those he called were afraid to honour the invitation.

Parker added that none of them showed up at the hospital where Enemuo was being treated, stressing that Enemuo’s condition continued to deteriorate until he died after which body was taken to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.

The commissioner also declared that the advent of the dreaded Ebola virus in the state was currently posing a challenge, saying the development was tantamount to a war time situation.

He said the Rivers State governor, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, had pledged to provide funds to enable the state to procure all relevant materials as well as the services of medical experts from Nigeria and abroad to contain the virus.

Parker also said 60 more people who had secondary contacts with Koye were quarantined last night, bringing the total so far to 100.http://www.punchng.com/news/late-doctor-knew-diplomat-had-ebola-virus-govt/

The birthplace of an outbreak

A portrait of Sierra Leone in the wake of the Ebola virus

Photos by Pete Muller/Prime for The Washington Post

Published on August 28, 2014

The epicenter of the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone sits in the rural Kailahun district. Nearly half of the country’s Ebola cases have been found there. The province shares a border with Guinea and Liberia, the two other nations hardest hit by the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

ABOVE: A boy wanders through a field of rice near the village of Dia, Sierra Leone, in August. Many of the country’s Ebola cases are found in rural areas.

In Kailahun, the aid group Doctors Without Borders has established a treatment center with more than 80 beds. Caring for Ebola patients is difficult, stressful work. The virus spreads by contact with bodily fluids, such as blood, urine and sweat. So medical staff must wear specialized protective gear that covers them head to toe. Everything is washed down with chlorinated water, as disinfection is a major concern. There is no cure for Ebola, and survival rates hover around 50 percent.

Staff must not only care for patients, but they must carefully bury the dead. Traditional practices require family members to wash the body and touch it before burial. But someone who has died from Ebola is especially contagious. The virus is literally spilling out of their skin. Many infections are blamed on burial practices. So Red Cross teams have been tasked with retrieving the bodies of people even suspected of having the disease. More than 240 health-care workers have been infected by Ebola during the West African outbreak. “The emotional burden of doing this is high,” said Walter Lorenzi, head of mission for Doctor Without Borders in Sierra Leone. “The stress, sometimes, can be too much.”

Kailahun

Residents of Kailahun gather along a river at dusk in August. The Kailahun district, in eastern Sierra Leone, has been heavily affected by the ongoing Ebola outbreak. School has been suspended, and residents live in fear. A Doctors Without Borders treatment center in Kailahun is the largest in history. Caring for the disease’s victims has been in­cred­ibly stressful and dangerous.

Dia

Members of a Red Cross burial team take samples from a woman suspected of dying from Ebola in the village of Dia in August. The government of Sierra Leone mandates that all deaths in which the cause is unclear be treated as potential Ebola cases. Contact with the bodies of Ebola victims is a leading cause of virus transmission. “Safe burials” are conducted by the International Federation of the Red Cross in accordance with rigorous safety procedures. The workers must put on personal protective equipment before entering the home.

Sengema

Residents of Sengema, including relatives of a man suspected of dying of Ebola, gather in August to watch Red Cross workers prepare and take the man’s body. The dead bodies of Ebola victims are extremely infectious because the virus is transmitted by bodily fluids, such as sweat, urine and blood. Family and community members are encouraged not to touch the bodies of those suspected of dying from Ebola. As a result, traditional funeral ceremonies have been seriously disrupted by the outbreak. Bodies are buried away from residential areas to reduce the risk of infection.

Kenema

Sierra Leone’s police and military have established numerous checkpoints on roads leading into and out of Ebola-affected areas. People denied passage at a checkpoint outside of Kenema wait in August. Only those with a government-issued permit are allowed to cross Ebola quarantine checkpoints. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2014/08/28/ebola-outbreak/

An Ominous Ebola Forecast

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD 

AUG. 28, 2014

The World Health Organization warned on Thursday that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, already the largest outbreak ever recorded, is going to get much worse over the next six months, the shortest window in which it might conceivably be brought under control. By then, the organization said, the virus could infect more than 20,000 people, almost seven times the current number of reported cases.

It is a frightening prospect that requires an urgent infusion of aid from public and private donors around the world. The situation as described by the health agency is so dire and the resources needed so daunting that it is hard to see how they can be supplied anytime soon.

The agency issued a road map listing tasks that must be carried out by countries with Ebola cases, nearby countries, the international community and nongovernmental organizations if the epidemic is to be contained.

A top official said the road map would require at least 750 international and 12,000 local health workers on the front lines delivering care. How can impoverished countries whose health workers are falling ill and dying or fleeing in fear possibly supply that many caregivers? If they cannot muster those workers, it seems inevitable that wealthier nations will need to step in with more personnel, but they, too, may have difficulty recruiting people.

The World Health Organization is belatedly catching up to a warning issued in June by Doctors Without Borders, a group that has been delivering care in some of the hardest hit areas, that said the epidemic was out of control. On Thursday, the health agency said that the reported death toll had risen to 1,552, from 3,069 cases of infection in four West African countries — Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria — and that the actual toll could be up to four times higher because many cases go undetected or unreported. That suggests there could already be up to 12,000 cases.

A top American official on the scene in West Africa said the situation is far worse than anticipated and raised concerns that, with each passing day, the virus might spread to additional countries. More than 40 percent of the total number of reported cases have occurred in the past three weeks. Most of those cases are concentrated in a few localities, offering hope that the outbreaks can be contained if more resources are sent to those places.

The road map could cost almost h... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/opinion/an-ominous-ebola-forecast.html?_r=1

Collaborator MSF quarantined in Brussels is not suffering from Ebola

employee of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) quarantined in a Brussels hospital after suspected Ebola contamination, do not suffer
False alarm! Collaborator doctor Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which was in quarantine in a Brussels hospital after suspected Ebola infection, would not have the virus ravaging West Africa. "It is almost certain, but to be completely sure, a second test will be performed on Monday," explained Sven Heyndrickx the FPS Public Health.
This was the first real suspected case in Belgium.
Thursday noon, the man fell ill while giving training to the association on the Tour & Taxis in Brussels. As he was returning from a risk area, it was immediately transferred to St. Peter's Hospital. "This man met the three conditions of the high-risk category: it comes from a country affected by the disease, he was in personal contact with it and he has a fever," said Sven Heyndrickx... https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lesoir.be%2F640054%2Farticle%2Factualite%2Fsciences-et-sante%2F2014-08-29%2Fcollaborateur-msf-mis-en-quarantaine-bruxelles-n-est-pas-atteint-d-ebola&edit-text=

Children under attack in Kansas City… Two Viral Outbreaks… One Hospital Basically Locked Down to Non Patients.

August 29th, 2014

The First is Hand, Foot, and Mouth… No Biggie? Right… But I was working while this station was on it’s afternoon news cycle and several times they stated Children’s Mercy Hospital had stopped allowing non-patients in the hospital for fear of Hand, Foot and Mouth affecting any immuno-compromised children who were already admitted. 

http://www.kmbc.com/health/doctors-see-spike-in-cases-of-common-childhood-virus/27775414#!bL9vPE

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. —Johnson County doctors said they’re seeing an overwhelming number of patients being treated for the childhood virus known as hand, foot and mouth disease.

“Kids have been out running around, doing all their stuff and now we throw them all into a classroom together,” said pediatrician Dr. Steve Lauer of the University of Kansas Hospital. “They start coughing on each other, touching each other.” 

Some of the symptoms include a fever, sore throat and painful sores in the mouth. Patients may also get a skin rash on their hands and feet.

The virus is easily spread and there’s no vaccine to protect against it, so doctors hope people can focus on practices that keep it from spreading.
_________________________________________________________

No mention of Children’s Mercy Hospital in THIS ARTICLE OR VIDEO? But the live news cycle mentioned this several times. 

_________________________________________________________

Ok Story #2… Made the Drudge Report: MYSTERY: MO hospital treats hundreds of children for unusual virus…

So this second virus is called Enterovirus 68.
Media Hype aside… This is a virus that seems to strike QUICKLY. Targets children, and is causing hospitals to see FLU Season levels of patients. 

http://fox4kc.com/2014/08/28/unusual-respiratory-virus-enterovirus-68-strikes-metro-kids/

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An unusual respiratory virus is striking children in the metro in big numbers. Children’s Mercy Hospital is hospitalizing 20 to 30 kids a day with the virus. The hospital is as full now as it is at the height of flu season.

This is not the same virus we told you about several weeks ago that can cause meningitis. This one can cause severe breathing trouble. Children’s Mercy has seen more than 300 cases in recent days in kids of all ages.(WTF)

Preston Sheldon’s mom says he seemed fine when she took him to pre-school Tuesday. But minutes later, the Grain Valley mom got the call. Her three-year-old son was having trouble breathing.

“You could see his ribs, and his stomach was pushing out really hard… I thought it was an asthma attack,” said Pam Sheldon.

“”To try to stop the spread, Children’s Mercy has posted signs at security entrances saying children 12 or younger should not visit in-patients. Nor should those with symptoms visit.“”
_______________________________________________________

So WTF is going on in KC… and for the record Overland Park IS the City in Kansas that borders Kansas City.

And this is the first time Enterovirus 68 has EVER been seen in Kansas City. 

Enterovirus can cause POLIO type symptoms. 

WTF is going on in KC?

 http://investmentwatchblog.com/children-under-attack-in-kansas-city-two-viral-outbreaks-one-hospital-basically-locked-down-to-non-patients/#w0djyhT6LbO3FFJe.99

Unusual respiratory virus strikes hundreds of metro kids-enterovirus 68

Unusual respiratory virus strikes hundreds of metro kids

Updated at 08:42am, August 29, 2014

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An unusual respiratory virus is striking children in the metro in big numbers. Children’s Mercy Hospital is hospitalizing 20 to 30 kids a day with the virus. The hospital is as full now as it is at the height of flu season.
This is not the same virus we told you about several weeks ago that can cause meningitis. This one can cause severe breathing trouble. Children’s Mercy has seen more than 300 cases in recent days in kids of all ages.
Preston Sheldon’s mom says he seemed fine when she took him to pre-school Tuesday. But minutes later, the Grain Valley mom got the call. Her three-year-old son was having trouble breathing.
“You could see his ribs, and his stomach was pushing out really hard… I thought it was an asthma attack,” said Pam Sheldon.
But it was a virus that is inundating Children’s Mercy with patients.
“To be at winter census is quite unusual in August obviously. To see a virus we’ve not seen before is unusual, too,” said Dr. Mary Anne Jackson, an infectious disease specialist.
It is enterovirus 68. The doctor says it’s well-known around the world, but cases have not been seen in Kansas City before.
“We have about 10 to 15 percent who have severe illness from this virus which actually acts like asthma exacerbations,” said Dr. Jackson.
She says about two-thirds of the hospitalized cases are in children like Preston who have a history of asthma or wheezing. But others are having trouble breathing, too. She says the virus will produce an ordinary cold in many kids. What should parents watch for?
“The difficulty breathing is a very obvious tip-off sign they need to come into the hospital,” said Dr. Jackson.
To try to stop the spread, Children’s Mercy has posted signs at security entrances saying children 12 or younger should not visit in-patients. Nor should those with symptoms visit.
Dr. Jackson says good hand washing, covering your cough and not sending your child to school if he or she appears sick can help control the spread.
There’s no anti-viral medicine for enterovirus 68 and no vaccine. Supportive care, including oxygen, has helped Preston. His mom is glad they didn’t wait to go to the emergency room.
“Cause it can hit really fast. And without medical treatment, it could get really bad,” she said. http://fox4kc.com/2014/08/28/unusual-respiratory-virus-enterovirus-68-strikes-metro-kids/

Ebola: the failures of the international outbreak response

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29 August 2014

First published in Le Temps on 27 August 2014.

Caroline Van Nespen/MSF

One of the MSF staff members at the Ebola treatment Centre in Monrovia. At the moment, MSF deployed a team of 350 people in Liberia only. A number which should increase in the days / weeks to come.

Dead bodies in the street, families wiped out, dozens of health care workers infected, hospitals shut down and panic and mistrust in the eyes of the people in the streets. This is what Médecins Sans Frontières usually sees in countries that are ravaged by war, but in Sierra Leone, Liberia and - to a lesser extent – Guinea, it is Ebola that is generating immense, public distress. As of today more than 1,427 patients have succumbed to Ebola viral disease and the care centres established by Médecins Sans Frontières are overwhelmed. On 8 August, far too late, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola epidemic a public health emergency of international concern. However, it had been officially declared in West Africa since March 2014. Health systems have imploded
The disaster is becoming even more dramatic as the health systems in the affected region have imploded. Patients are dying of Ebola, but also of malaria, diarrhoea or complicated deliveries due to the absence of effective medical care. In Liberia especially, hospitals are deserted. And fear is spreading.
MSF has been responding to the crisis since March 2014. We have opened up more and more isolation centres throughout the affected countries to care for the sick and we have assisted the communities. For the last three months, we have actively been calling for more hands-on assistance to control the epidemic and to provide the best possible care to patients.
International response is slow, derisory, irresponsible
However, the international response is slow and derisory. It can equally be defined as irresponsible. Today, only a handful of international actors are engaged in the fight against Ebola. But this is nowhere near enough. This is an exceptional crisis, the number of new infections is still on the rise, and the virus has a serious potential to spread to other countries.
Promises of funding and political statements are not sufficient – decisive action is needed now. Case finding must be intensified, more isolation centres have to be set up, epidemiological surveillance and laboratory capacity have to be reinforced, contact tracing and follow-up must be strengthened, communities must be sensitised, experienced staff and training are needed in the field, and general health services must be reopened: these activities must be properly coordinated inside and beyond the borders of the affected countries. This necessitates a hands-on, operational approach.
The situation can only be reversed if there is a significant commitment of states with available effective disaster response capacity - be it through civil protection mechanisms, the support of military medicine units or of logistics or medical staff who are used to working with strict infection prevention and control measures.
Closure of international borders
The successive closure of international borders including air travel renders our efforts increasingly difficult. Infected medical personnel cannot be evacuated anymore – another layer of collective irresponsibility. The international community must ensure that those who try to contain the outbreak can enter and leave the affected countries if need be. A functional system of medical evacuation has to be set up urgently.
Why is it that the international community is largely relying on the very fragile health systems in the affected countries to manage an international health crisis of this scope? And why are they entrusting global health security to private organisations that have, by nature, limited capacities to respond to major outbreaks? It is irresponsible to place exclusive management of such a devastating, deadly epidemic on the back of overwhelmed nations such as Sierra Leone and Liberia while praying that the private sector is filling the gaps left by the shortfalls of its heath system.
MSF asks for more: not lip service, but action
MSF has accumulated significant experience in dealing with Ebola outbreaks over the last 20 years. During the same period, operational capacities in the United Nations  system have been gradually reduced through reforms. For example, the restructuring of the World Health Organization in Geneva has led to the closure of its viral hemorrhagic fever unit. Member states should be held accountable for an unceasing reduction of response capacity. A destructive spiral has materialised, leading to what we see today: lack of leadership, deficient coordination and, last but not least, a striking absence of operational capacity. This is compounded by the fact that the international community simply doesn’t feel responsible for responding to what is happening in regions that are not perceived as politically or economically interesting.
Crises that are threatening global health security demand a commitment from all states. Once this commitment is ensured, response capacity can be built around either existing or newly established institutions or networks.
It is shortsighted of developed nations to limit their response to the potential arrival of one infected patient on their territory. If the aim is to avoid further spread of the epidemic, we have to control transmission of the virus. And this is only possible by caring for patients in West Africa.
Today and again, Médecins Sans Frontières asks for more – not more lip service, but more action.
Thomas Nierle (President) and Bruno Jochum (General Director)  http://www.msf.org/article/ebola-failures-international-outbreak-response

India-No Suspected Ebola Patient in the Last 24 Hours

No Suspected Ebola Patient in the Last 24 Hours

Updated: August 29, 2014 21:11 IST

New Delhi:  A total 161 passengers from the affected countries have arrived in India in the last 24 hours and no suspected case of Ebola patient has been admitted to any of the identified health facilities.

Three passengers from Sierra Leone who were admitted to the quarantine cum isolation facility at Delhi airport yesterday tested negative and were released from this facility, Health Ministry said.
Passengers have arrived at the airports of Mumbai (48), Delhi (73), Kochi (1), Bangalore (20), Kolkata(2) and Chennai (16) and Hyderabad (1).

Meanwhile state governments have been provided with the details of those 113 (including 2 Nepalese Nationals) passengers who were brought back by M/s Afcons and International SOS from Liberia to India.

"The Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) is tracking these passengers. Report has been received from the state IDSP units of 10 of the 20 states about 35 passengers being monitored. All are healthy," said Health Ministry officials.

Further, immigration officers have been trained in 12 of the 18 airports, where connecting flights arrive from the affected countries.

Crew members of flights arriving at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi and Trivandrum (11 airlines) have been sensitised on the measures to be taken by the airline crew and on the standard operating procedures for passenger screening at the airports by Airport Health Organizations, they said.

Story First Published: August 29, 2014 20:13 IST http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/no-suspected-ebola-patient-in-the-last-24-hours-583898

 

Seychelles now requires advance Visa from West African visitors

Better safe than sorry – Seychelles now requires advance Visa from West African visitors

Posted August 17, 2014 by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Thome
The Seychelles have with immediate effect introduced Visa requirements for visitors from West Africa and have listed a number of countries, not only those affected by the current Ebola outbreak but also countries bordering them. Visitors, citizens and persons living there alike, from the following countries are affected and need to place a Visa application with the nearest Seychelles diplomatic office: Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Congo, DR Congo, Gambia, Mauritania and Senegal. The decision was taken after intergovernmental consultations bringing together the Ministries of Health, Home Affairs & Transport and Tourism & Culture.
Seychelles citizens wanting to travel to these countries equally now require formal permission from the office of the Commissioner for Public Health although government sources stressed that this was not a travel ban but simply a precautionary measure to make sure Seychellois’ are not heading into the Ebola danger zone. Expatriates working in the Seychelles were also advised to refrain from travelling to West Africa or else risk being denied re-entry until the outbreak has been officially declared over by the WHO.
Visitors arriving from Ebola affected countries should be aware that they will be placed under a 21 day precautionary quarantine for close observation to establish if any symptoms of the disease will develop. The Seychelles health authorities have made provisions for such cases.
It was also stressed to this correspondent that any visitors arriving from Yellow Fever zoned countries MUST carry a current Yellow Fever Inoculation Certificate from recognized medical facilities or clinics which must be presented at the health desk in the arrival hall of the international airport BEFORE proceeding to immigration.
Better safe than sorry comes to mind as the Seychelles truly is Another World. http://wolfganghthome.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/better-safe-than-sorry-seychelles-now-requires-advance-visa-from-west-african-visitors/

Ebola: Enuemo’s wife, three months old baby in Lagos

on August 29, 2014   

PORT HARCOURT  (AFP) – Some 160 people are being medically monitored in Port Harcourt after a doctor died from the virus, the local government said on Friday.
“As of today, none of them has shown symptoms of any kind. We are in touch with them constantly and they also call us to tell us their condition,” Rivers State health commissioner Sampson Parker told a news conference in the city.
The Nigerian government announced on Thursday that the doctor was Nigeria’s sixth person to die from the haemorrhagic fever and the first outside the country’s biggest city, Lagos.
Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers state, is the centre of Nigeria’s oil industry and is home to a number of oil majors, including Anglo-Dutch giant Shell, France’s Total and US firm Chevron.
The doctor, Ikyke Samuel Enuemo, fell ill after treating an official from the ECOWAS regional bloc, who travelled to the city after coming into contact with a Liberian-American man who brought the virus into Nigeria and died on July 25.
The official slipped through the surveillance net in Lagos. He was brought back to Lagos but found to have recovered from the virus, health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.
Enuemo’s wife, who gave birth only three months ago, is ill with symptoms of the disease and has been placed in quarantine.
She requested to be moved out of Port Harcourt for “emotional reasons” and has been taken to an isolation unit in Lagos for further observation and treatment, Parker told reporters.
“She is also a doctor. Her three-month-old baby is alive and well. The result of the test conducted on her (for Ebola) is not yet out,” he added.
Six people have died of the disease in Africa’s most populous country.
Specialists from the World Health Organization, the United States and Britain have joined experts from the Nigerian government in Rivers State to check the spread of the virus.
Rivers state has a quarantine centre at Oduoha, about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of the city as well as a special isolation ward for Ebola patients at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).
Neither has received any patient, Parker said.
A mobile laboratory has arrived in the city while the hotel where the ECOWAS official was treated has been decontaminated, as have the hospital where Enuemo was treated, his house and the morgue at UPTH.  http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/ebola-enuemos-wife-three-months-old-baby-in-lagos/

New Outbreak of African Swine Fever Reported in Ivory Coast #ebola

Pigs, humans and #ebola in close quarters..

29 August 2014
IVORY COAST - There has been a new outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) reported in the Ivory Coast, San-Pedro area.
The outbreak has affected 600 out of 1,500 domesticated pigs on a farm in San-Pedro.
All of the 600 pigs died suddenly; no animals were destroyed. 
The source of the outbreak is thought to have been swill feeding.
The last outbreak of African Swine Fever in the country was in December 1996.

http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/37526/new-outbreak-of-african-swine-fever-reported-in-ivory-coast

Sister Of Dead Ebola Doctor Escapes From Port Harcourt As 200 Are Quarantined In Rivers State

SaharaReporters has learned that a sister of a Port Harcourt-based medical doctor, Iyke Enemuo, who recently died from the Ebola virus, fled to Abia State to avoid being quarantined along with others who came into contact with the late doctor.

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by SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK Aug 29, 2014

SaharaReporters has learned that a sister of a Port Harcourt-based medical doctor, Iyke Enemuo, who recently died from the Ebola virus, fled to Abia State to avoid being quarantined along with others who came into contact with the late doctor. However, one of her siblings, who is also a doctor, forced her to return to the quarantine center in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State. A nurse helps a health worker put on protective gear before treating Ebola patients at a clinic in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, in July. NPR

The woman helped care for her doctor brother as he suffered from the debilitating disease caused by the Ebola virus.
At least 200 people who came in contact with Dr. Enemuo, who died last Friday in Port Harcourt, have been placed in quarantine for close medical watch.
Dr. Enemuo had contracted the virus when he was secretly treating a staff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) who, in turn, had had contact with Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American who initially brought the disease into Nigeria. Mr. Sawyer had slumped at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos shortly after arriving there on July 20. He was rushed to a Lagos Hospital where he died five days later. A doctor, Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, and two nurses who helped care for Mr. Sawyer in Lagos have also died.
SaharaReporters discovered that the ECOWAS diplomat who had had contact with Mr. Sawyer flew to Port Harcourt the same day the Liberian American died, and met up with Dr. Enemuo. Apparently aware of the deadly nature of the disease afflicting the diplomat, Dr. Enemuo opted to treat him secretly at a local hotel.
After recovering, the ECOWAS staff flew back to Lagos to seek clearance to travel out of Nigeria. Quarantined and checked for Ebola in Lagos, he was found to be free of the virus. However, a few days after he left Port Harcourt, Dr. Enemuo took ill and was hospitalized at Good Health Hospital in Port Harcourt where he died of the disease.
The hospital has been closed down, and close to 70 people immediately quarantined by Nigerian health officials. However, as at last night, more than 200 people who had been in contact with Dr. Enemuo and the ECOWAS diplomat had been quarantined as well. Dr. Enemuo’s wife recently took ill with Ebola http://saharareporters.com/2014/08/29/sister-dead-ebola-doctor-escapes-port-harcourt-200-are-quarantined-rivers-statesymptoms.