The widow of Dr Ikechukwu Sam Enemuo, who died in Port Harcourt last week after treating a diplomat who had contact with the primary contact, Mr Patrick Sawyer, has tested positive to the Ebola virus disease.
Rivers State commissioner for health Dr Sampson Parker said the widow of Dr Enemuo had been flown to Lagos for treatment where the National Treatment Centre for the Ebola virus is located, since the test of the result conducted on her indicated positive.
Enemuo, the medical director of Sam-Steel Clinic, Rumuokoro, Port Harcourt, died on Friday, August 22, 2014, at the Good Heart Hospital, GRA, Port Harcourt, and the result of samples taken from his body indicated that he died of the Ebola virus disease.
No fewer than 100 persons including the wife of the deceased have been quarantined while the two hospitals and a hotel where the late Enemuo met with a staff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who is believed to have had contact with the index case, the late Liberian-American Dr Patrick Sawyer, have been closed down.
The commissioner said, “We transferred her to Lagos for two reasons: she wanted to leave this zone and, second, we transferred her to enable us concentrate on tracking those who have had secondary contacts with Koye. There is a perfect synergy between the federal and the Rivers State governments on combating the disease in Lagos.”
Addressing journalists in his office yesterday, Parker said the late Enemuo knew that Koye, who works with the ECOWAS was a carrier of the Ebola virus.
Parker said: “He had received the late Dr Patrick Sawyer in Lagos. Upon developing the symptom, he confided in a female colleague called Lilian, 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.
“To conceal his movement, Koye, who had been quarantined amongst other people for having primary contact with the late Sawyer, 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, the commissioner for health revealed, Koye avoided being traced, 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.
“From what we have gathered so far, Dr Enemuo, knowing full well that Koye was positive of the Ebola virus, took some measure 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 treatment at Green Heart Hospital, along Evoh Road, in GRA. Dr Enemuo did not tell the doctor that was treating him the truth. He merely told him that he had a 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 all 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.
“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 quarantine to Port Harcourt.”
The commissioner for health stated that 60 more people who had secondary contact with Koye were quarantined last night bringing the total so far to 160, adding: “Our contact tracing team is working seriously to make sure we contain the spread of the Ebola virus in Rivers State.”