August 28, 2014 – One medical doctor has died of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Port Harcourt, bringing the total number of patients that have died of EVD to 6, Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu announced on Thursday morning.
The doctor died after unknowingly treating a patient who had primary contact with Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who died of Ebola in Lagos. Ironically the person treated has tested negative to Ebola but his test result showed he suffered attack of EVD, the minister said.
He added that 70 persons have consequently been placed under surveillance in Port Harcourt and that the widow of the deceased doctor has also been quarantined after showing symptoms of Ebola.
“This primary contact of Mr. Sawyer’s evaded our surveillance team in the last week of July 2014 and travelled out of Lagos to Port Harcourt where, as we now understand, he consulted with a doctor and was apparently treated for some symptoms. After four days, following a manhunt for him, he returned to Lagos by which time he was found to be without symptoms.
“This case would have been of no further interest since he had completed the 21 days of surveillance without any other issue, but for the fact that the doctor who treated him died last Friday, 22nd August, 2014.
“Following the report of this death by the doctor’s widow the next day, the case had been thoroughly investigated and laboratory analysis showed that this doctor died from EVD. As a result, several contacts have now been traced, registered and placed under surveillance. However, because the widow is now symptomatic, she has been quarantined pending the outcome of laboratory tests on her”, he said.
Chukwu added that Incident Management Committee has already deployed a very strong team to Port Harcourt to work with the health authorities of Rivers State.
“Just like the situation has effectively been managed in Lagos and Enugu, the situation in Port Harcourt will also similarly be effectively managed and we have begun to do so”, the minister said and appealed to residents not to panic.
“I want to charge the residents of Port Harcourt not to panic over this situation as the experience we have gathered from Lagos and Enugu respectively indicate that there is no cause for alarm when you have the government fully in control of the situation.
“Once again we appeal to all contacts under surveillance to abide by the advice given to them by the Incident Management Committee”, he said, adding that with regard to Enugu, all secondary contacts will be followed up till tomorrow when they are all expected to be discharged from our surveillance”, he said.
“This primary contact of Mr. Sawyer’s evaded our surveillance team in the last week of July 2014 and travelled out of Lagos to Port Harcourt where, as we now understand, he consulted with a doctor and was apparently treated for some symptoms. After four days, following a manhunt for him, he returned to Lagos by which time he was found to be without symptoms.
“This case would have been of no further interest since he had completed the 21 days of surveillance without any other issue, but for the fact that the doctor who treated him died last Friday, 22nd August, 2014”, the minister said.
He said that with the recent discoveries, the total number of cases of EVD cases so far reported in Nigeria stands at fifteen (15); the total number of cases treated at our isolation ward stands at thirteen (13); the total number of those discharged is seven (7); the total number of deaths from those treated in Lagos is five (5), and the total number currently under treatment is one (1) and the person is stable and improving clinically, the minister said adding that the number of cases has increased from thirteen (13) to fifteen (15) and that the additional two (2) were not treated in the isolation ward in Lagos.
