Lagos builds biobank to tackle Lassa fever, Corona virus, others
By Risikat Ramoni, Lagos | Published Date Jan 27, 2020 9:11 AM
The newly built Lagos State Level 3 Biosafety Laboratory also known as the Lagos Biobank has commenced operation.
The facility located in the Lagos Infectious Disease Hospital has the capacity to process, rapidly identify and store samples of infectious diseases such as Ebola, Lassa Fever, novel Coronavirus amongst others.
During a visit to the facility at the weekend, the State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi said the new facility located within the premises of the Mainland Hospital, Yaba and the Lagos Infectious Disease Hospital, was built by the state government with support from the Canadian government to ensure effective management of infectious diseases.
“With this facility, which is the highest and most functional biosafety, biobanking laboratory in Nigeria and West Africa, Lagos is prepared to tackle and contain any possible outbreak of emerging infectious diseases, novel and highly infectious pathogens,” he stated.
The Commissioner who also inspected other facilities at Mainland Hospital including infectious disease wards, isolation wards, quarantine units and proposed sites for expansion of isolation wards and mini emergency operation centre expressed satisfaction at the level of preparedness of the infectious disease hospital and the bio-security unit for possible disease outbreak.
Abayomi while giving an update on the level of preparedness of Lagos State against the raging novel Corona Virus in South East Asia and Lassa fever outbreak in some states in Nigeria disclosed that the Ministry of Health is working closely with other agencies of the Federal Government including National Centre for Disease Control and Ports Health to strengthen surveillance in the State.
The Commissioner urged citizens to adopt and practice high standard of personal and environmental hygiene including regular hand washing, covering of mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, avoiding close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing as well as practising good biosecurity precautions with domestic and wild animals as measures against the transmission of any kind of contagious infection and pathogens.
Lagos Mainland Hospital, Yaba: The untold story behind defeating the Ebola Viral Disease in Nigeria
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
The outbreak of Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) in Nigeria was an enormous public health challenge in 2014. One of the important factors that ensured the successful treatment of infected persons and ultimate elimination of the EVD in Nigeria was the availability of a facility in Mainland Hospital, Yaba, Lagos State. Established in 2012 by the Lagos State Government with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and technical assistance from Family Health International (FHI 360) under the TBCARE project, the facility is an ultra-modern multi-drug resistance tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment center. It is a 40 bedded admission facility with 2 wards of 14 beds each for males, and a ward of 12 beds for females and children.
At the early hours of Friday, July 25, 2014, millions of Nigerians woke up to the shocking realization that EVD was indeed truly in-country and anybody irrespective of age, tribe, creed or gender was at risk of being infected. The fear of infection, as well as death from EVD, touched on the very core of people’s existence as individuals, families, communities and the entire nation. Everyone residing in Nigeria could no longer take for granted the simplest gesture of basic human relationships such as shaking hands, caring for loved ones and burying the dead in line with cultural norms. Nigeria had its fair share of the crisis, recording 21 cases of the disease and 9 deaths before being declared Ebola-free. Nigeria’s effort and ability to curtail further spread of the virus received international acclaim with the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) calling on other countries battling the disease or at risk of an outbreak to replicate the actions and public health measures implemented in Nigeria.
With rising cases of EVD in Nigeria, the Government of Nigeria considered the MDR-TB treatment center in Lagos Mainland Hospital suitable for the containment and treatment of EVD, both in design and spatial alignment. Although originally designed for the highly infectious airborne MDR-TB disease, the facility played a positive role in the treatment and containment of the EVD spread. Whether the original design features of the facility had a significant impact on the EVD transmission rate or prognosis of the disease is beyond the scope of this article. This writeup therefore limits itself to exposing the ‘as built’ architectural features of the MDR-TB treatment center where all confirmed EVD cases in Lagos State were admitted and treated. The responsibility for determining any relationship between the design features of the facility and the successes recorded on EVD elimination from Nigeria is left to the reader.
The infection prevention and control (IPAC) enabled MDR-TB treatment center was purposely designed to ensure efficient and sustainable maintenance of maximum air exchange at an internationally acceptable rate per hour. This was achieved partly due to the IPAC principles introduced to the design of this center. The head rooms of the building were purposively designed to be above average height while windows were made large, evenly distributed and closely spaced throughout the building. The windows begin from as low as 750mm above the finished floor level of the building and goes as high as 2100mm, aligned with the prevailing dominant wind direction. Artificial cooling was purposefully not provided. This was based on assumptions that patients (and healthcare workers alike) may close the windows to achieve better cooling, thereby, preventing the evacuation of contaminated air from the wards/rooms.
Additionally, the ward design purposively excluded artificial ventilation systems (AVS) in order to minimize the need for constant uninterrupted power supply which is usually not tenable in a low income country like Nigeria; thereby, keeping the cost of maintenance low. Thus, only natural ventilation was ensured through averagely high head rooms and multiple, large windows; thereby, improving safety of patients and healthcare workers, management efficiency as well as sustainability of patient care in the facility and ultimately achieving maximum air exchange rate necessary for the treatment of highly infectious airborne diseases such MDR-TB. The floors are made of seamless sheets of linoleum, with upturns at the edges, to ease cleaning and prevent trapping dirt and infectious organisms. The walls have seamless finishes, coated with washable paints. Waste water (sewage) from the wards are channeled through closed system of drainages into large, properly sealed septic tanks and soak-away right within the treatment facility, to prevent infection spread. The structural arrangements also facilitate ward decontamination and make the ward environment non-conducive for microorganisms to thrive.
The spatial arrangement of the treatment center also took into consideration the satisfaction, safety and security of both patients and health care workers. The treatment center is highly secured within a perimeter fence, with a security checkpoint at the entrance gate. Entrance into each of the wards is restricted with automatic control buttons located at the Nurses’ station, to allow for only unidirectional access to the wards. Main access door from the Nurses’ station to the main wards have fixed glass windows that allow the nurses to directly observe their patients even while on their desks. The facility features allows for only authorized persons to be allowed in or out of the facility at any given time. There is a designated area with controlled access and barrier for patient relatives to wait and/or talk to their loved ones who are patients on admission in the facility.
The entire MDR-TB facility is well lighted, with backup power supply from the national grid, as well as a stand-by generator (powered occasionally, whenever necessary). The facility is well landscaped, creating a green and serene environment with beautiful waves of walkways. Recreational facilities such as table tennis and assorted indoor games are provided in the lawn and the beautifully made gazebos to create a home-like environment that facilitate longer term patient stay. Multiple hand washing bays with automatic controls are available both within the wards, lawns and the recreation areas, to promote hand washing practices by both healthcare workers and patients. Each of the wards are also equipped with modern toilet and bathroom suites, serving an average of 3 patients to a convenience. Healthcare workers’ stations are also equipped with similar sanitary facilities, for their maximum comfort, safety and security. The center has its own consulting rooms, state of the art digital X-ray facility, pharmacy unit and a well-furnished healthcare workers’ lounge.
The MDR-TB treatment center located at the Lagos Mainland Hospital remains one of the game changers in the celebrated successes of the Government of Nigeria and her international collaborators to wrestle down EVD in Nigeria. Establishing these type of centers in each state of the federation will go a long way in not only addressing the rising cases of MDR-TB in Nigeria, but will serve as a readily available facility for the containment of any complex infectious disease outbreak in any given state. Other MDR-TB treatment centers of similar capacity in Nigeria, established with funding from USAID and technical assistance from FHI 360 include Dr. Lawrence Henshaw Memorial Hospital, Calabar in Cross River State; Infectious Disease Hospital, Kano in Kano State and the Federal Medical Centre, Yola in Adamawa State.
Press conference by the Lagos State Government on the first case of the corona virus in Lagos.
Speaking is the Lagos State commissioner of health, Professor Akin Abayomi and with him is the Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwoolu.
So we have a traveller that started his journey from Milan on Monday the 24th of February. He transited through Istanbul on Turkish Airlines and arrived in Lagos on Monday night at 9pm.
He spent the night in a hotel near the airport and on Tuesday morning he moved on to his business in Ogun State, where he is engaged by a corporate entity.
He carried out business in Ogun State within the confines of that company on Tuesday and on the early part of Wednesday. In that company he spent the night in their accommodation, which is a confined environment, a guest house and by the afternoon he started to develop symptoms of high fever and body pains.
He presented to the company medical facility, where the investigation began. Because he gave a history of his origin from Italy, where we know there is a young outbreak happening, it was very astute of the medical practitioners in that facility to keep him overnight in an isolated environment. They contacted us at the bio-security unit in Lagos for assistance. We immediately asked them to transfer the case to Lagos.
He was brought to our high containment facility in Yaba on Thursday morning. Immediately he arrived he was put into strict isolation and the appropriate tests were ordered. Within hours we received the
The patient remains in strict isolation at our containment facility in Yaba and he’s doing well under supportive therapy. As of now we’ve started to trace the movement of this traveller from the airport, through Lagos, to Ogun State and we are busy identifying any possible person that may have come in contact with him, so that we can start our isolation and containment exercise, to ensure that we break the cycle of transmission.
In Lagos, we have been building capacity steadily. We’ve fortified support at the airport by sending state health professionals to support the federal authorities. A form has been developed so all travellers have to fill in those forms as they arrive. At our infectious diseases facility, we have ramped up capacity to isolate suspected cases. We are now sitting on about an 80 bed isolation facility because of the emergency funds that have been released by the incident commander. We are continuing to build more capacity, should in case we have an increased number of cases in Lagos.
We have a very aggressive public awareness campaign going on and we have engaged in extensive training across the hierarchy of health professionals.
Regarding the entry or the screening of patients that are starting their journey from countries that have high number of transmission of this coronavirus, most countries are beginning to start a screening process before people actually board the flight, but if you board the flight and you are well and you arrive in Lagos and you are well, then we can’t pick you up at that point. It’s only if you have symptoms that you will be stopped from boarding the flight and if you have symptoms on arrival at our international airport here in Lagos, that is when we trigger a second. . .there’s a second form that many of you are not aware of, if you are identified on the form, you have symptoms or you volunteer those symptoms, then there’s a second process that kicks in, which then activates a very high level of containment and we take that traveller to one of our isolation facilities, where we will now observe them directly under our supervision, otherwise, you just go along with your normal business
In addition, we are building our capacity to diagnose the case in Lagos and right now we can run the tests in two centres in Lagos, one in our bio-security facility and the other at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. We are in constant contact with the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and the minister of health in Abuja and we are exchanging information continuously. The important thing to know now is that the patient is confined, we have aggressively started to identify all his contacts all the way to the airline and that process started around 3am this morning. It continues as we speak. We would like to assure everybody that we are on this case to make sure that we can identify everybody that he has come into contact with.
His symptoms are subsiding; he does not have any symptoms of respiratory disease, which is probably a good thing, but he does have fever and body pains. If he had respiratory symptoms, it is probably likely that he may be more contagious than he is at the moment.
So on that point I would like to hand over to the incident commander, the governor, Mr Babajide Sanwoolu
Until recently there were only two diagnostic laboratories in Sub-Saharan Africa that were capable of diagnosing diseases like the Corona Virus and Ebola. One is in South Africa and the other is in Senegal. During the Ebola crisis, test samples were flown from Nigeria to the Pastur Institute in Senegal. Now there are three such laboratories in Nigeria, one in Lagos, one in Abuja and one in Benin.
Update, the Infectious Diseases Hospital is now capable of running tests for the Corona Virus.
There is another isolation centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). That's where the lassa fever patient is. Professor Abayomi also visited the lassa fever patient at the facility.
The hospital at the centre of the battle against the Corona Virus in Lagos.
The Infectious Diseases Hospital was established at the Mainland Hospital in 2012 by the Lagos State Government with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and technical assistance from Family Health International (FHI 360) under the TBCARE project. The facility was initially an ultra-modern multi-drug resistance tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment centre.
During the Ebola Disease Crisis in Nigeria, the government decided MDR-TB treatment centre was a suitable place for the containment and treatment of Ebola Disease.
Since then, the facility has been upgraded by the Lagos State Government, the Canadian Government, the British Government, the US Government and various international agencies to enable it deal with various infectious diseases. It is one of the centres that is designated for the treatment of Lassa Fever and it is at this hospital that the Italian Corona Virus patient is being kept.
The Lagos State commissioner of health, Professor Akin Abayomi, visited the corona virus patient at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Yaba. He assured the patient that the Lagos State Government will ensure that he gets adequate care.
Optional09: I believed it was announced that Ret. Gen. President Mohammodu Buhari will be traveling to London for a 20day vacation.
I will also like to invite him to a special international summit in Wuhan, China where we will discus some important topics also he will have the privilege to take pictures with some of the world leaders like CONVID19, LassaV-1 and others
Beremx: [s][/s]Was the Lagos State Government waiting for the disease to enter Nigeria before they released the precautionary measures not to get infected?
The chief press secretary of the Lagos State governor, Mr Gboyega Akosile, tweeted this a few minutes ago.
gboyega akosile @gboyegaakosile
Breaking News
FIRST CASE OF CORONAVIRUS CONFIRMED IN LAGOS
The Ministry of Health in Lagos State has confirmed its first case of COVID-19 and reported it to the Federal Ministry of Health. The case, which was confirmed on the 27th of February 2020, is the first case to be reported in Nigeria since the outbreak in China in January 2020.
The case is an Italian citizen who entered Nigeria on the 25th of Feburary from Milan, Italy for a brief business visit. He fell ill on the 26th February and was transferred to Lagos State Biosecurity Facilities for isolation and testing. COVID-19 infection was confirmed by the Virology Laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, part of the Laboratory Network of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.
The Government of Lagos State under the Governor as the COVID-19 Incident Commander, through the Lagos State Ministry of Health, has been strengthening measures to ensure that any outbreak in Lagos is controlled and contained quickly in collaboration with the multi-sectoral Coronavirus Preparedness Group, led by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). We have immediately activated the State Emergency Operations Centre to respond to this case and implement firm control measures.
I wish to assure all Lagosians and Nigerians that we have been strengthening our preparedness since the first confirmation of cases in China. We will use all the resources made available by the State and the Federal Government to respond to this case.
We are working to identify all the contacts of the patient, since he arrived in Nigeria. Please, be reminded that most people who become infected may experience only a mild illness and recover easily, but it can be more severe in others, particularly the elderly and persons with other underlying chronic illnesses.
All Lagosians should take care of their health and maintain hand and respiratory hygiene to protect themselves and others, including their own families, following the precautions below:
1. Regularly and thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water, and use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
2. Maintain at least 1 & half metres (5 feet) distance between you and anyone who is coughing or sneezing.
3. People coughing persistently or sneezing should stay indoors or keep a social distance, but not mix with a crowd.
4. Ensure that you and people around you follow good respiratory hygiene by covering mouths and noses with a handkerchief or tissue while sneezing or coughing. You can also sneeze or cough into your sleeve at the bent elbow.Then dispose of the used tissue immediately.
5. Stay indoors if you feel unwell with symptoms, such as fever, cough and difficulty in breathing. Please call Lagos State Emergency hotlines 08023169485 or 08033565529 or 08052817243 which are available day and night.
6. Stay informed on the latest developments about COVID-19 through official channels on TV and Radio, the Social Media, including the Lagos State Ministry of Health, NCDC and Federal Ministry of Health. Citizens must not abuse social media and indulge in spreading misinformation that causes fear and panic. The Lagos State Ministry of Health, in collaboration with Nig Centre for Disease Control, will continue to provide updates and will initiate all measures required to prevent the spread of any outbreak in Lagos.
Prof Akin Abayomi Commissioner for Health Lagos State For Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu 28 February 2020.
An Italian citizen has tested positive for the virus in Lagos. The test was conducted by the Lagos State Government at the Infectious Diseases Hospital and reported to the Federal Ministry of Health.
Reference: That is what I heard on the news this morning. I am not in Lagos and certainly not in Reddington and you are certainly not in Wuhan so news is what we all use in tracking what is going on.
If you provide information, then you must state the source or authority that gave the information in order for it to be credible. All hospitals in Lagos are required to inform the Lagos State Government about suspicious cases. Reddington informed the Lagos State Government and the patient was moved to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, which is owned by the Lagos State Government. The commissioner of health, who is the competent authority to provide such information, has stated the results of the tests that were conducted at the Infectious Diseases Hospital and then you come here to say, "It is said",
Who is the "it" that said?? What is his name??
Even on the news, they will provide the name of the person or authority that made that statement. Every good journalist knows this. Otherwise it's just beer parlour rumours! Professor Akin Abayomi has stated the result of the test, so who is the "it" that said that the result will be ready on Friday??
The Infectious Diseases Hospital (previously known as the Mainland Hospital, Yaba) is the main facility for combating serious infectious diseases like ebola, lassa fever and the corona virus. The Ebola Containment Centre that was built during the Ebola Crisis of 2014, was located at the Infectious Diseases Hospital. Since then, the Lagos State Government, the US Government, the British Government, the Canadian Government and several international NGOs have collaborated to further upgrade the facilities at the hospital.
Lagos builds biobank to tackle Lassa fever, Corona virus, others
By Risikat Ramoni, Lagos | Published Date Jan 27, 2020 9:11 AM
The newly built Lagos State Level 3 Biosafety Laboratory also known as the Lagos Biobank has commenced operation.
The facility located in the Lagos Infectious Disease Hospital has the capacity to process, rapidly identify and store samples of infectious diseases such as Ebola, Lassa Fever, novel Coronavirus amongst others.
During a visit to the facility at the weekend, the State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi said the new facility located within the premises of the Mainland Hospital, Yaba and the Lagos Infectious Disease Hospital, was built by the state government with support from the Canadian government to ensure effective management of infectious diseases.
“With this facility, which is the highest and most functional biosafety, biobanking laboratory in Nigeria and West Africa, Lagos is prepared to tackle and contain any possible outbreak of emerging infectious diseases, novel and highly infectious pathogens,” he stated.
The Commissioner who also inspected other facilities at Mainland Hospital including infectious disease wards, isolation wards, quarantine units and proposed sites for expansion of isolation wards and mini emergency operation centre expressed satisfaction at the level of preparedness of the infectious disease hospital and the bio-security unit for possible disease outbreak.
Abayomi while giving an update on the level of preparedness of Lagos State against the raging novel Corona Virus in South East Asia and Lassa fever outbreak in some states in Nigeria disclosed that the Ministry of Health is working closely with other agencies of the Federal Government including National Centre for Disease Control and Ports Health to strengthen surveillance in the State.
The Commissioner urged citizens to adopt and practice high standard of personal and environmental hygiene including regular hand washing, covering of mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, avoiding close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing as well as practising good biosecurity precautions with domestic and wild animals as measures against the transmission of any kind of contagious infection and pathogens.
Reference: But it is said the results will be out by Friday. So who has the true end of the story. It is just a matter of time before it hits Nigeria. I have given up hope it could at least wait till the rainy season when airborne infections drop but here we are.
My concern now is for the aged parents who are more vulnerable medically and will be more difficult to quarantine.
I don't think we have fully appreciated the magnitude of this impending disaster. Was speaking to a well versed doctor yesterday but the medical community in general appears a bit too relaxed for my liking. Granted this is just like any other flu outbreak and the mortality for the common cold is even worse but the sheer economic impact is worrying.
For folks like us who operate nuts and businesses how exactly do you work from home. We literally operate 24/7 in close, dense proximity. There are expensive materials that will be ruined if unused for just a matter of hours not even weeks that are stocked in quantity for production economic reasons.
I just don't know how this willwork and the government isnot coming out withdefinitive plan policy statements on how it plans to handle this matter in the eventuality of a serious outbreak. Will there be ar run on banks for cash. Will there be travel or journey restrictions between and within states for those moving goods, will the markets remain open. Will there be voluntary or mandatory quarantine measures. How much domestic or industrial stocking. What will the game plan be.... What is the Nigerian government planning....
Because it is coming.
Who is the "it" that said that the results will be out by Friday? The competent authority on that matter has stated what the results are, but you said that, "It is said that the results will be out by Friday", so who is the "it" that said that the results will be out by Friday??
cRobo: And you think will they test a patient positive and scare away potential customer
What potential customer? I repeat, it wasn't Reddington that tested him. He was tested at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba. That is a government owned hospital and it is the best hospital, with respect to infectious diseases, in Nigeria. That was where the Ebola Containment Centre was situated and it was further upgraded by international agencies after the Ebola crisis.
Just to clarify. Reddington Hospital immediately informed the Lagos State Government about the patient (as they are meant to do) and the Lagos State Government moved him to the Infectious Diseases Unit at Mainland Hospital (the same unit that was at the forefront of the fight against Ebola).
The tests were conducted at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, not at Reddington Hospital.
Patented: There is a reddington in Ikeja. But I still think it's fair news.
It's not exactly fake news. There was a Chinese patient that presented with fever at Reddington Hospital, Ikeja. However, the Lagos State Government moved him to the Infectious Diseases Unit at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba and he was tested and monitored and he tested negative for the virus.
The Lagos State Government (@followlasg) has said that the Chinese citizen who presented at the Reddington Hospital, Ikeja (@ReddingtonLagos) yesterday and suspected to have Corona virus has tested negative to the infection.
The commissioner of health, Professor Akin Abayomi (@ProfAkinAbayomi) who made this known through a press statement noted that the likelyhood of #COVIDー19 infection in this particular patient was very low & the conclusion of investigations & sophisticated testing confirms that there is no case of Corona Virus in Lagos as of now.
“I would like to reassure Lagosians that our vigilance levels are very high and we are putting more measures in place to safe guard the State”, @ProfAkinAbayomi said.
While giving details of the investigation, @ProfAkinAbayomi explained that the Ministry of Health's attention was drawn to a suspected case of Corona Virus at @ReddingtonLagos Hospital; a private health facility located at Ikeja.
“From our investigation, we gathered that a Chinese citizen who arrived in Nigeria from China 7 weeks ago presented at the Hospital yesterday complaining about fever”
"The hospital in keeping with the advisory we earlier issued, correctly maintained a high index of suspicion, isolated the patient and reported the case to the Lagos State Ministry of Health (@LSMOH)"
“We took up the case, transferred the patient to the State Isolation Unit at the Mainland hospital which is our specialised infectious disease hospital. His blood samples were taken to the Virology laboratory for analysis and it came out negative”, the Commissioner said.
@ProfAkinAbayomi appealed to citizens to refrain from posting unverified news that can cause unnecessary anxiety in community.
He urged citizens to disregard any information about #COVIDー19 that does not emanate from official communication channels of @LSMOH or his office.
I started listening to Nigerian oldies on Spotify since last yr that's how I got to know some of them. So many of them and well, maybe I miss home as I don't know most of them before.
Accept my apologies pls. U did very well. Never knew some of them there were igbo.
Nelly is among the ones I play everyday. Ezigbo di m, super eagle, Onye dala ada, aka bu eze etc and so mamy others.
The brother happened to be an Anglican priest in my town and I met her during one of her visits as a kid and she usually lead the choir or sing with the band. I wasn't an Anglican but people from all denominations will troop to the Anglican church just to watch her sing.
This is the song. This is the audio of Nelly Uchendu's version. This is the song that I was looking for. I had this album in the 1970s and '80s.
naptu2: I've done it! This is the audio. This is the first time that I'm listening to this song in almost 30 years!
Health › Re: Professor Akin Abayomi Visits The Corona Virus Patient (Pictures). by naptu2(op): 8:10am On Feb 29, 2020
