Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samson
Parker, has given an insight to how the dreaded
Ebola virus crept into the state and claimed its first
victim, Dr. Iyke Samuel Enemuo, a medical doctor.
Giving an update on the ebola virus disease in the
state Friday, Parker said the late Enemuo treated a
Nigerian diplomat attached to the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS),
Oluibukun Koye, who had evaded the surveillance
team in Lagos to travel to Port Harcourt.
He declared that Enemuo was aware that Koye had
the ebola virus disease (EVD) before treating him at a
mushroom hotel in Port Harcourt.
Parker said: “He (Koye) had received the late Dr.
Patrick Sawyer 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
Oluibukun Koye flew to Port Harcourt to see Dr.
Enemuo”.
"To conceal his movement, Koye, who had been
under surveillance with 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
cannot be reached or traced should he answer a call."
The Health Commissioner also disclosed that the
number of persons under surveillance in the state
has increased from 100 to 160.
"Our contact tracing team is working seriously to
make sure we contain the spread of the Ebola virus
in Rivers State," he said.
It was also disclosed that Enemuo’s wife who gave
birth only three months ago, is ill, She was said to
have developed symptoms of the disease and
currently under quarantine.
She was said to have requested to be taken to Lagos
and kept in an isolation unit for treatment and
observation.
“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,” Parker said.