Few hours after Nigerians were rejoicing over the
news that yet another Ebola patient had been successfully manage and discharged
from hospital, the ministry of health has announced that a separate victim has lost
the battle by the virus. Dan Nwomeh, special assistant on media and
communication to the minister of health, said the latest victim died at an
isolation ward in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers state, having contracted the
disease while receiving treatment at the hospital where a doctor died on August
22. The doctor himself contracted the disease while treating an ECOWAS official
that had contact with Mr. Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who brought the
disease into the country.
“The [late] Port Harcourt-based doctor was not
managed by us but… [he] died from Ebola Virus Disease,” he said.
“The elderly patient who was in the same hospital
where that Port Harcourt doctor was managed but who was admitted and managed by
us at the Port Harcourt isolation ward unfortunately didn’t make it because she
also had other problems including heart problems. So she has passed on.”
Nwomeh said Nigeria was in effective control of
the situation, as only two patients were being isolated in Lagos and Rivers,
the only states where confirmed cases of Ebola have been recorded in the
country.
“The total number of cases successfully managed
and discharged from our isolation ward in Lagos stands at eight. Eight
Nigerians have been successfully treated in Lagos and are at home now, reunited
with their families. The number of Ebola Virus Disease patients currently under
treatment, as I speak to you, are two. One in Lagos and one in Port Harcourt.”
Explaining that the latest death brings to seven the total number of people who
have died of the virus, Nwomeh said 291 persons were under surveillance in the
country.
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