A female patient on admission in the same hospital as the
late Port Harcourt
doctor who treated a colleague of Patrick Sawyer has tested positive for Ebola
virus disease, bringing total confirmed cases to 16.
Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told an emergency meeting
of the national council on health in Abuja that the patient—the third confirmed
case in Port Harcourt—was “presently under treatment” in an isolation ward in
Rivers state.
The doctor, Iyke Enemuo, died last week, days after treating
an ECOWAS diplomat colleague of Sawyer who evaded surveillance in Lagos after he was taken
ill.
His wife, also a doctor, showed symptoms last week and was
put in quarantine.
Two other contacts of the late Port Harcourt —including a doctor who managed
him and a pharmacy technician in his hospital—were admitted into isolation
treatment after they showed symptoms.
Their test results are yet negative for Ebola but
“laboratory tests will be repeated to reconfirm their status,” said Chukwu.
All are the first confirmed cases of Ebola outside Lagos , where the virus
first hit.
Some 199 people have been put under surveillance in Port Harcourt since last
week, and none has completed the 21 day observation period.
“It is expected that a few more contacts will develop the
EVD especially in Rivers State before Nigeria will see the last case of
EVD,” Chukwu told health commissioners on Monday.
“While it is encouraging that so far, all confirmed cases of
EVD in Nigeria
have their roots in the index case, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, great vigilance is
required particularly at our ports of entry to ensure we do not have cases of
EVD from other sources other than Mr. Sawyer.
A total 278 contacts in Lagos have been taken off surveillance after
completing a required 21 days—the period equivalent to the incubation of Ebola.
Six identified contacts there completed 21 days under
observation and were let off.
In latest report presented to the council, the health
ministry said total 13 people have been treated at isolation wards in Lagos . Seven have been
discharged and two more on treatment in Lagos
are said to be stable.
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