Nigeria Free
Of Ebola,
Final
Surveillance
Contacts Released

As the WHO Ebola Response
Team published dire predictions
of the West African outbreak in
the New England Journal of
Medicine, overnight – including
an updated 70.8% fatality rate –
the Health Minister of Nigeria
reports that his country is
completely free of active Ebola
cases and have today released
the final victim contacts from
surveillance.
In a telephone interview last
night where he was preparing
for a United Nations General
Assembly meeting in New York,
Minister of Health Onyebuchi
Chukwu, MD, said, “Presently,
there is no single case of Ebola
virus disease in Nigeria – none.”
Dr. Chukwu provided further
details, saying, “No cases are
under treatment, no suspected
cases. There are no contacts in
Lagos that are still under
surveillance, having completed a
minimum of 21 days of
observation.”
In the process of tracing
contacts of individuals infected
with Ebola, anyone showing no
symptoms after three weeks of
last known contact with a victim
is considered free of any
potential for the disease.
Rivers State, whose capital city
is Port Harcourt, had been home
to over 400 contacts under
medical surveillance. As of last
night, only 25 contacts
remained.
“None of them are showing any
symptoms. Tonight [Mon 22
Sept] will mark the end of their
21 days of observation and the
plan is to get them discharged
from surveillance tomorrow
[Tues 23 Sept].”
“Nigeria will be as clean as any
other country as far as Ebola
virus disease is concerned.”
Achievement in perspective
PBS TV reporter Fred de Sam
Lazaro wrote yesterday from
Port Harcourt, “The story of
Ebola in Nigeria is an unusual
and frankly rare one about
things going right somewhere in
Africa.”
“Indeed, the disease has now
been contained in Lagos, a city
of 21 million people, and Port
Harcourt, population 1.4
million.
Nigeria is the most populous
country on the African
continent, with 177 million
people, yet only suffered 21
Ebola cases and eight deaths. In
contrast, Liberia has just 4.3
million people yet has
experienced 2,710 reported
cases, with 1,459 deaths (as of
18 September).
Ebola virus was brought to
Nigeria when naturalized
American and Liberian Ministry
of Finance official, Patrick
Sawyer, traveled to Lagos for a
meeting of the Economic
Commission of West African
States (ECOWAS) in Calabar on
July 23.
Sawyer had symptoms of the
disease before leaving Liberia
and became very ill on the
flight, infecting others from
ECOWAS who greeted him and
at the hospital where he was
treated and died two days later.
A contact under quarantine in
Lagos for some reason took
flight to Port Harcourt, about a
seven-hour drive. There, he was
treated in secret by Dr.
Ikechukwu Enemuo. Both Dr.
Enemuo later died.

Enemuo infected others,
including his wife and sister.
Both were successfully treated
and recovered. But authorities
had to track 477 contacts in the
Port Harcourt area.
The need for cautious
communication
Dr. Chukwu told me, and has
said publicly elsewhere, that
one challenge in Nigeria has
been preventing stigmatization
of anyone under surveillance as
well as Ebola survivors.
“Three terms became part of our
lexicon: surveillance,
quarantine, and isolation.” But
these need to be clearly
explained, said Dr. Chukwu.
“Surveillance is sort of like
house arrest. You don’t
criminalize them. The person is
actually a victim, not a criminal.
We monitor their movements,
the rest of the family are
counseled about what contact
can and can’t be done. We have
contact with them everyday.
You can imagine what this effort
must’ve been like when we had
300 in Lagos and over 400 in
Port Harcourt.”
Only when those under
surveillance show symptoms – a
fever, whether it ends up being
Ebola, yellow fever, or malaria –
they are put under quarantine.
“That is the first time we are
denying that individual the
comfort of his own bed. We put
him in separately from the
isolation ward from those who
are confirmed. If malaria, we
discharge them to their doctor
to be treated for malaria.”
Credit to WHO-assigned
physicians
The Ebola survivors in Nigeria
were not treated with any
experimental drugs. Contract
tracing and early identification
of cases were managed by
isolating the patients and
replacing fluids and electrolytes.
In some cases, blood
transfusions were necessary.
Dr. Chukwu had high praise for
WHO Director General, Margaret
Chan, for sending physicians to
Nigeria. “We only knew about
Ebola virus through our medical
books. We’ve never seen a
single case of Ebola virus until
this year. So we needed
someone with practical
experience who had seen the
virus to come and train our
doctors what to do and the rest,
and then we took over.”
“It is important that we let the
world know that WHO did well
in sending us doctors with
practical experience, said Dr.
Chukwu. “But we also worked
with the CDC, UNICEF, and MSF
in managing the disease.”
Controlling the outbreak in
Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra
Leone
Dr. Chukwu said that a major
challenge is that the three
countries are contiguous and in
need of independent,
coordinated oversight. The case
in Nigeria was different because
once President Goodluck
Jonathan declared a health
emergency, he had the authority
and resources to direct the
entire national effort.
In an attempt to centralize the
West African response, the
current chairman of ECOWAS is
the president of Ghana and
convening a meeting of West
African health ministers
together with the director of the
Nigerian Center for Disease
Control.
In the rest of Africa, Dr. Chukwu
suggested that Guinea, Liberia,
Sierra Leone (as well as
Senegal) could benefit from the
expertise of doctors in Uganda
and the DRC who have
successfully treated Ebola
patients. The rest of the world
can certainly provide the aid
that is starting to grow:
emergency mobile hospitals,
supplies such as IV fluids and
personal protective equipment.
But people in these countries
are also voicing a loss of
confidence in their own
governments as their economies
fail and food and clean water
are in short supply.
And, particularly with the killing
of aid workers in Guinea last
week, the international effort
must bolster security to
encourage volunteers that they
can work safely in what are
already extremely demanding
conditions.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2014/09/23/nigeria-free-of-ebola-as-final-surveillance-contacts-are-released/

comment after i finish reading

Somebody shout halleluyah!!

Let's give honour to whom honour is due
Kudos to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
Kudos to the Minister of Health Onyebuchi
Chukwu
Kudos to Governor Fashola
Kudos to Governor Rotimi Amaechi
Kudos to every health worker (dead or alive) who contributed to this massive victory
Kudos to everyone who spread and partook in the wash your hand campaign (I'm here )
This achievement will go a long way in brightening dwindling hopes in this country. #GodBlessNigeria