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ABUJA. – Nigeria yesterday recorded the fourth case of Ebola fatalities following the death of a nurse who came in contact with Liberian Patrick Sawyer, local media reported.
The nurse died early yesterday at the Yaba Mainland General Hospital in Nigeria’s most populous city of Lagos, according to local online newspaper Premium Times. An official statement confirming the development was yet to be issued.
Jide Idris, commissioner for health in the south-western Nigeria’s state of Lagos, was also at the hospital. He left the health facility after a brief meeting with the staff, but declined to make official comment on the death of the nurse.
The nurse’s death makes the total number of Ebola fatalities in Nigeria to four. The first was the death of Sawyer on July 25.
Another nurse who had attended to the Liberian died on August 5. Jatto Asihu Abdulqudir, a 36-year-old staff of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) was also killed by the Ebola virus on Tuesday, according to the regional bloc.
The Nigerian government had on Monday confirmed 10 cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) with 177 persons under surveillance.
Last Friday, Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan declared a national emergency, saying a sum of US$11.6 million will be released to prevent further spread of the Ebola virus.
Meanwhile, Nigerian doctors have requested international intervention to help contain the spread of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Addressing a news conference in Lagos yesterday, Dr Ladi Okuboyejo said the country is overwhelmed by the virus and called the outbreak a major public health emergency that required global attention.
“We need the support of the international community now more than ever. We desperately need all the help we can get,” Okuboyejo told reporters.
The medical doctor said the Ebola outbreak is not an African affair, but a global affair that must be quickly responded to by the international communities.
“We have never handled this before in Nigeria. We were not trained for such an outbreak,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria is too big in Africa to be ignored by the international community.
Guinea’s President Alpha Conde on Wednesday declared a “health state of emergency” due to the critical situation of an Ebola epidemic in the country.
The decision will enable the government to take new preventive and health measures aimed at limiting the spread of Ebola virus which has so far claimed 377 lives in Guinea and over 1,000 in the West African region.
At the same time, a health corridor has been established along the border between Guinea and neighbouring countries experiencing an Ebola outbreak.
Movement of people within the corridor will be limited and all health and humanitarian actors will be mobilised to fight against the epidemic.
The president said anyone who opposes the proposed measures will be considered as a threat and will be handled according to the law.
Security officers will be deployed around all entry points in water, on land and in the air to ensure strict adherence to the new health measures, the president concluded.
Meanwhile, Liberia was bracing yesterday for food and petrol shortages, after neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire blocked access of ships from all four West African countries affected by the deadly Ebola outbreak.
Cote d’Ivoire port authorities prohibited all vessels from Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria from passing through the country’s port in Abidjan, according to Liberian newspaper Front Page Africa.
Liberia will be especially hard hit by the ban, because Cote d’Ivoire is a key transit point to Liberia, including for aid transport.
Air France, Asky and Arik airlines have already suspended flights, while Delta and British Airways also announced they will terminate their services.
The government of Ghana announced late Wednesday a three-month ban on the hosting of international conferences and international gatherings which have the potential of spreading the Ebola virus.
This is part of the measures being put in place by the government to prevent an outbreak of the disease in the country.
A statement issued by Minister for Communication, Edward Omane Boamah on Wednesday announced that government had also released an additional US$2 million to augment the fight against the deadly disease.
He explained that part of the funds would be spent on procuring 10,000 additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to ensure the safety of frontline workers who may come into contact with the disease should an incident be recorded in Ghana.
The decisions, according to the minister were part of directives issued by President John Dramani Mahama after he had met with the Inter-Ministerial Task Force coordinating the country’ s response to the EVD outbreak.
According to the statement, Ghana has so far recorded 45 suspected cases, all of which tested negative.
The President also reaffirmed the decision to reschedule the reopening dates of tertiary institutions and further tasked the inter-ministerial team to institute urgent measures to screen all foreign students from the affected countries, added the statement.
It said the president also directed that the Field Engineering Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces be deployed immediately to speed up the completion of the three designated Ebola Treatment Centres in Tema.
There were 1 975 confirmed and suspected cases of Ebola and 1 069 deaths as of August 13, according to the World Health Organisation. — Xinhua-Sapa-Herald Reporter.
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