COVID-19: How healed Italian man paid Nigeria before he was discharged

LAGOS, Nigeria – The Italian man who flew into Nigeria from Milan, now referred to as the index case has been healed by the Nigerian authority and discharged after testing negative on two occasions to Coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic.

The Italian who names were still being held secret to aviod stigmatisation, was very grateful to the Nigerian authority for giving him the best care, leading to his quick recovery.

But before leaving, he consented to donating one unit of his whilte blood cell, also called plasma, which is rich in antibody for the treatment of those suffering from the Coronavirus pandemic.

“The index patient consented to donating one unit of white blood (otherwise called plasma) before he was discharged today. The blood plasma is rich in antibody proteins that target #COVID-19 virus. The white blood plasma is frozen in our Bio-bank and will be useful in handling new cases.

“The blood plasma will be beneficial for the treatment of new patients in the absence of a defined therapeutic drug for #COVID-19 yet”, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu said.

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He added that the index patient appreciated the exceptional care and support given to him by staff of the mainland infectious Disease Hospital,Yaba, all members of the EOC / @followlasg, adding that the EOC team was extremely happy to bid the patient farewell.

His full statement.

As the COVID-19 Incident Commander for Lagos State, I am glad to inform you that the index case, the Italian gentleman is now negative. Through a combined effort of Lagos State, Ogun State and Federal Health Authorities, we were able to limit the transmission of the virus to a single contact.

This involved aggressive contact tracing and containment strategies. However we now have several new imported cases and we hope to apply the same contact tracing strategy along with social distancing to slow down the outbreak which may be brewing from these new cases.

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The index patient consented to donating one unit of white blood (otherwise called plasma) before he was discharged today. The blood plasma is rich in antibody proteins that target #COVID19 virus. The white blood plasma is frozen in our Bio-bank and will be useful in handling new cases.

The blood plasma will be beneficial for the treatment of new patients in the absence of a defined therapeutic drug for #COVID19 yet.

The index patient appreciated the exceptional care and support given to him by staff of the mainland infectious Disease Hospital,Yaba, all members of the EOC / @followlasg. The EOC team was extremely happy to bid the patient farewell.

Once again, we would like to convey the enthusiasm of our team to do the very best possible in handling incidents of Coronavirus.