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

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.

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.

Ausrichie:
We are finished. First Lassa now corona Ebola go just commot from nowhere (I hope not) why is it that inconsequential bullshit always plague small countries.

Ausrichie:

China has handled worse situations I hope you know. For Nigeria it is a bigger problem we don't have the facilities bro.

When SARS came in from China how many Nigerians e kill None. Even Ebola was less than 10 and it’s just the people around the victims that were affected. Nigeria is not conducive for those virus... 9ja too hot

naptu2:
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.