South-West governors on Wednesday rose from a
meeting in Lagos and called on the Federal
Government to stop the spread of the deadly
Ebola virus.
Before that, the Minsiter of Health, Prof.
Onyebuchi Chukwu and the Lagos State
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris,
announced at separate news conferences that the
matron of the Lagos hospital where a Liberian-
born American, Patrick Sawyer, was admitted,
died on Tuesday afternoon.
The matron whose name was not given by
Chukwu,and Idris, was reported by the media on
Wednesday to have shown the symptoms of the
virus.
She was among the health workers that attended
to Sawyer who died in the Lagos hospital on July
25 and officially, the first Nigerian casualty.
The matron had been quarantined alongside
seven others at the Infectious Diseases Hospital,
Yaba, Lagos for close monitoring.
One of them, a female medical doctor, who also
attended to Sawyer, had also contracted the
disease.
About 59 people were reported to have had direct
or primary contacts with the Liberian-American.
Twenty seven others who had secondary contacts
with the primary contacts had been traced.
Chukwu, while announcing the death of the Lagos
matron confirmed seven other Ebola cases, Idris
called on religious groups in the state to stop all
gatherings until a solution to Ebola outbreak was
found.
The South-West governors first met behind
closed-doors at the Lagos House, Ikeja, and later
with commissioners for Health in the zone.
In attendance were the host Governor,
Babatunde Fashola; Olusegun Mimiko(Ondo);
Ibikunle Amosun(Ogun); Kayode Fayemi(Ekiti);
and the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Moses
Adeyemo.
They said the Federal Government must assist the
states by ensuring that all the nation’s borders in
the zone were effectively policed to ensure that
Ebola virus did not get into their states.
Fashola, at a news conference said the meeting
afforded them the opportunity to share
experiences and seek collaborative efforts to
prevent the spread of the virus in the zone.
He said, “The meeting addressed issues of
containment and the challenges of illegal borders.
“We also discussed possible support by the
Federal Government and coordination among
states. We feel that it is imperative that our
collaboration suggests to us that Nigerians should
not panic and that we would overcome this with
the very best practices and collaboration.
“It is important therefore that advocacy must
continue about what the risks are and the sources
are.”
Amosun said Ogun State was overwhelmed and
was short of manpower and material to
effectively man its over 100 illegal borders where
foreigners enter the state with ease.
He said, “We are more prone and more at risk to
Ebola virus and we have put all our security
agencies and the respective medics at these illegal
borders.
“But when you have in excess of 100, you and I
know that the state doesn’t have the capacity to
man these borders.
Mimiko said the onus lay on every Nigerian to
ensure that foreigners did not have unfettered
access into the country.
“Every Nigerian should know that those who aid
and abet illegal entry into Nigeria now could be
up to something that could be dangerous to the
health of the country.”
Fayemi spoke on the possibility of Nigeria seeking
the assistance of the United States for ZMapp, an
experimental drug for the treatment of the EVD.
He said, “The drug has not been certified as a cure
for the disease; however, the Federal
Government can try out its efficacy in a controlled
centre.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/ebola-south-west-govs-meet-as-lagos-matron-dies/