After a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on
Wednesday, the Minister of Information, Mr
Labaran Maku, told reporters that one of the
nurses, who had contact with the index patient,
late Patrick Sawyer, had traveled to Enugu State
contrary to instructions and had had contact with
the 21 persons.
According to Mr Maku, 198 Nigerians have been
traced to have contacted the virus. While 177 are
in Lagos, 21 persons in Enugu are being watched.
The FEC devoted this week’s meeting to the
efforts being made to combat the Ebola Virus
which entered Nigeria some 23 days ago and had
been declared a National Emergency.
At the meeting, the Minister of Health, Dr
Onyebuchi Chukwu, told the council that
Nigerians had been on the alert even before late
Sawyer entered Lagos with the virus.
He told reporters that he was in touch with all the
Commissioners for Health and that the Governors
of the 36 states and the Minister of the Federal
Capital Territory had been called for a meeting
with the President, an indication that the
government was taking the case serious.
He said a committee had been set up to handle
the claims by many Nigerians that they have a
cure for the ailment and called on Nigerians not
to panic, as the government was in touch with the
rest of the world on the possible cure for the
disease.
The Nigerian government had requested for an
untested drug, Zmapp, believed to be efficient in
the treatment of Ebola virus from the United
States but had not gotten any concrete response.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization
supported the use of untested drugs for the
treatment of the disease, which the Nigerian
government said its outbreak was a National
Emergency.
As part of efforts to contain the disease, which
had claimed three lives in Lagos State, President
Goodluck Jonathan had set up an intervention
plan with 1.9 billion Naira approved for the
control of the disease.
The Federal Government had urged those who
had primary contact with the index patient to
report themselves so that they could be
quarantined.


http://www.channelstv.com/2014/08/13/fg-says-21-suspected-cases-of-ebola-reported-in-enugu/