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Following the death of the matron that was one of the primary contacts of the late American-Liberian, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, who died recently of Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in Lagos, Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, has described the presence of Ebola in the country as a national emergency.

Chukwu made this known when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Health. He said: “The fact that a Liberian victim of the disease, Mr. Patrick Sawyer could come and die in Nigeria meant that the virus was a global threat.



“This is a national emergency. Everyone in the world today is at risk. The experience of Nigeria opens the eyes of the world,” he said.

In Lagos, the state government has appealed to religious organizations including churches and mosques to step down on congregational activities that will bring a large number of worshippers together.

Making the appeal in Lagos, yesterday, while confirming the matron’s death as the first Nigerian fatality of EVD, state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris said the appeal became necessary in the wake of heightened anxiety over the threat posed by the Ebola virus which is transmitted from human-to-human by body contact.

Stressing that the female doctor who tested positive to the virus initially, is still alive, while six other contacts have since tested positive, Idris, who outlined the move as one of the measures being taken by government to address the situation said: “I seize this opportunity to appeal to Churches and Mosques to stop all religious gatherings, so as to prevent further spread of the virus .” He explained that at such gatherings, sweating and body contacts were most likely to occur.

The appeal came on the heels of an announcement by the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, banning delegates from EVD-affected West African nations, from attending the church’s ongoing convention, which opened Monday night at the church’s Redemption Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Addressing a capacity crowd at the convention, Adeboye expressed regret over the decision to bar members of the Church in the affected nations but prayed that God would soon arrest the situation.
The development came two days after a Nigerian female doctor tested positive to the Ebola virus.

Earlier, in Abuja, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, while announcing the death of the nurse at a press briefing, said: “Yesterday (Tuesday), August 5, 2014, the first known Nigerian to die of the EVD was recorded and this was one of the nurses that attended to the Liberian. The other five cases are currently being treated at the isolation ward in Lagos.

“Nigeria has now recorded seven confirmed cases of Ebola virus. The first one was the index case – the imported case from Liberia of which the victim is now late.

“All the Nigerians diagnosed of the Ebola virus were primary contacts of the index case.

“The 24/7 Emergency Operation Centre which I intimated you of in my last press conference will be fully functional tomorrow (today).

“It will be headed by Dr. Faisal Shuaibu as the Incident Manager. He will later today (yesterday) lead a six-man inter-agency team drawn from National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, the US CDC, the WHO, UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Lagos to complete the setting up of the Centre.”

The team includes medical personnel from the Lagos State Government and experts from federal hospitals in the Lagos area as well as the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.

Already, government has appointed a Director of Communication and Community Mobilization , Prof. O. Onajole, of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. He will be based in Lagos.

Chukwu noted that government is embarking on recruiting additional health personnel to strengthen the team who are currently managing the situation in Lagos.

He said there were plans to procure relevant equipment for management of the patients.

“We are making arrangements to procure isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Terrority.”

Government is al.......

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ABOUT TIME THEY DECLARE. VIRUS WILL ALWAYS BE VIRUS AND UNLESS IT SEEN THAT WAY IT WILL KEEP SPREADING.

GOD HELP US ALL.

God save us all!

This really is turning to something else, I wonder why they are panicking all of a sudden tho, the first ebola case was reported in March, that was months ago, we had all the time in this world to prepare for this, and I really wonder why we wait for the evil to happen before running helter skelter in futility. The only best we can HOPE is that we GET LUCKY and this disease doesn't escalate beyond this because in actual fact we are incompetent wen it comes to containing this catastrophe #MyOpinion

Illiteracy itself is a disease. This could have been avoided, if this country values its citizens. #Better late than Never.