Rivers State Government announced on Monday that an 18-month-old baby has shown symptoms of the killer Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the state.

State Commissioner for Health, Samson Parker, who disclosed this at a media briefing in Port Harcourt on the update on Ebola cases in the state, said the child has been quarantined for observation.

He added that test would soon be conducted to know the health status of the child.

The commissioner also disclosed that the younger sister of the first victim of the ebola virus disease in Port Harcourt, late Dr. Iyke Samuel Enemuo, Chinyere, who also tested positive to the virus last week, has been discharged from the Isolation Centre, Oduoha, in the Emohua Local Government area of the state.

Parker said Chinyere, who surrendered herself for test on the Ebola after confirming that her brother died of the virus, was positive last week but that with effective management of the case by the Rivers State health workers, she became immune to the virus and has since been discharged.

The commissioner noted that Chinyere has been successfully managed and that she is now negative and immune to the Ebola virus.

“She has been effectively treated, cleared and discharged from our isolation treatment centre. She deserves to be celebrated as a success story,” Parker said.

He cautioned members of the public against stigmatisation, noting that malaria kills more people than the Ebola virus.

He asked: “Why don’t we stigmatise malaria patients?”

Parker added: “I can assure you that the disease has been covered. People should not cause panic. The number of deaths from Ebola is lower than deaths from road accidents”.

He equally disclosed that 479 contacts are being monitored in the observation centre.

Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, also gave an update on Monday on the Ebola virus at a news conference in Abuja where he warned that there is still the possibility of an increase of the cases in the country.

He, however, assured that Nigeria is in control of the situation, while cautioning people to be vigilant.

“There is that possibility of having other cases as long as you have contacts under surveillance, there is the possibility of having other cases.

“We are not saying that we cannot have new cases from the current contacts that are under surveillance, what I am saying is that the government is in full control.

“We know what to expect, we have learnt from the experience of what we did in Enugu and Lagos, we also learnt from the experience of other countries, we have the experts who came initially through World Health Organization (WHO) and we also have Nigerian experts who have learnt since the time Ebola came into Nigeria.

“The confidence we have is that we know what we are doing when it comes to Ebola, we are in control and we have contained the situation. Ebola is not in any street in Nigeria.

“What we are saying is that even if there is no single case today in Nigeria, but we have one single case anywhere in the world, Nigeria will still be at risk.

“We must remain vigilant. I must stress this that until the very last case in every country, everybody in the world remain at risk,” Chukwu said.

The minister said 477 contacts are currently under surveillance in Port Harcourt and that 339 contacts who were under surveillance in Lagos have bee discharged after completing their mandatory 21 days of observation while 27 contacts are still under surveillance in Lagos.

“Regarding contacts currently under surveillance, Lagos has 27 contacts under surveillance as of now. A total of 339 contacts who were previously on surveillance have been discharged having completed 21 days of observation.

“Port Harcourt has 477 contacts under surveillance. It is a mixed group consisting of tertiary and quaternary contacts of Mr. Sawyer’s.

“Five contacts have already been discharged from surveillance in Port Harcourt having completed 21 days of observation.”

Chukwu further said in the last one week a number of EVD rumours have been investigated and that all the cases have turned out to be Ebola negative.

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The Lord is our Muscle in Rivers State