Zacheaus Somorin with agency report
Since the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in the United States of
America on Tuesday, the country’s health authorities have been
citing Nigeria’s experience at containing the outbreak of the virus as
a success story that should be emulated in the US.
Several US health experts and the Director-General of the Centre for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Dr. Thomas
Frieden, appeared on CNN on Tuesday and wednesday during which
they spoke of Nigeria’s quick and coordinated action by some of its
top doctors to contain the outbreak in Lagos and Port Harcourt after
the disease was imported into the country by Liberian Patrick
Sawyer.
“For those who say it’s hopeless, this (Nigeria) is an antidote — you
can control Ebola. It won’t blow over — you have to make a rapid,
intense effort,” said Frieden.
However, fear has gradually spread in the US since the CDC
confirmed that a Liberian national, Thomas Eric Duncan, who
arrived in Dallas, Texas, on September 20 and fell ill on September
24 had tested positive for the virus.
This was made worse by the announcement yesterday that some
school-age children had been in contact with the US Ebola patient
being treated in Dallas, according to Texas Governor, Rick Perry.
Five students at four different schools have come in contact with
the Ebola patient, Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles added, but none
has exhibited symptoms.
The children are being monitored at home, and the schools remain
open, Miles said. Between 12 and 18 people have been identified as
coming in contact with the patient, officials added.
Concern about the possible spread of the killer virus came less than
a day after the CDC announced that, for the first time, a person with
Ebola was diagnosed on American soil.
How that case was handled has sparked many serious questions.
The patient, a man, walked into an emergency room at Texas Health
Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas on September 26. A nurse asked him
for his travel history, while he was in the emergency room, and the
patient said he had travelled to Africa, said Dr. Mark Lester,
executive vice-president of Texas Health Resources.
But that information was not "fully communicated" to the medical
team, Lester said.
The man, who had just flown from Liberia to the US, underwent
basic blood tests, but not an Ebola screening, and was sent home
with antibiotics, said Dr. Edward Goodman with Texas Health
Presbyterian Hospital.
Two days later, on September 28, the man returned to the facility,
where it was determined that he probably had Ebola. He was then
isolated. He tested positive for the virus Tuesday, health officials
said.
The CDC, which has helped lead the international response to Ebola,
advised that all medical facilities should ask patients with symptoms
consistent with Ebola for their travel history.
The CDC has ramped up a national effort to stem the spread of
Ebola, and in September President Barack Obama spoke at CDC
headquarters in Atlanta.
He called the virus a global health and security threat, and pledged
US assistance to the affected countries to try to stem the tide of the
disease.

www.thisdaylive.com/articles/us-health-authorities-learn-from-nigeria-s-experience-containing-ebola/190372/