The first human outbreaks of Ebola on record occurred in Sudan and Zaire in 1976 but West Africa is being burdened with the deadliest outbreak of Ebola in history. Countries like Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and recently Nigeria. In a recent report, that the head doctor treating patients with Ebola in Sierra Leone, virologist Sheik Umar Khan, has himself contracted the virus, and is now being treated by doctors from the organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).
Ebola is an infectious and generally fatal disease marked by fever and severe internal bleeding, spread through contact with infected body fluids by a filovirus ( Ebola virus ), whose normal host species is unknown.
The virus is lethal, causing a severe viral hemorrhagic fever, and has so far killed 60 percent of people infected by it in this West Africa outbreak. Symptoms of Ebola HF typically include: Fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and lack of appetite. In pregnant women, abortion (miscarriage) and heavy vaginal bleeding are common Ebola symptoms. Death usually occurs during the second week of Ebola symptoms, and it’s usually due to massive blood loss.
The WHO has recorded more than 900 cases of Ebola in the epidemic that has raged across West Africa in recent months, but the recent discovery in Lagos is the first suspected case to emerge in Nigeria since the outbreak began.
The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected persons. Transmission of the Ebola virus has also occurred by handling sick or dead infected wild animals like chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope, fruit bats.
Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos, Yewande Adeshina recently said told newsmen that a 40-year old Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, a WASH consultant at the Ministry of Finance, working for a West African Organisation in Moronvia, Liberia, who arrived Lagos last Sunday had the disease.
However, reports have it that Patrick who had been quarantined since arriving Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday, July 20, 2014 with symptoms of the Ebola virus has died.
Lagos State Government on the 25th of July formally confirmed the death of Patrick Sawyer who came aboard a flight from Monrovia via Lome on Sunday July 20, 2014 at about 4pm into Lagos State.
Addressing Journalists at the Bagauda Kaltho press center located in Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, the state commissioner for Health Jide Idris flanked by his information and strategy counterpart Aderemi Ibirogba, the special adviser to the Governor on public health, Yewande Adeshina and the special adviser on information and strategy Raji Lateef said the 40 year old Liberian had before his death tested positive to Ebola virus disease in the test conducted in the country.
According to him, “The patient had died over night and ever since then we have tried as much as possible to contain it, we need to sanitize, we need to treat the body properly, we need to dispose -off the body properly and those are the things we are working out right now. There are processes which we are following and we are doing this in conjunction with federal ministry of health staff .”
“There is protocol to follow, there are people involved, we are talking with the hospital involved , the staff over there, after dealing with the body we have to deal with the hospital, to sanitize the hospital, more importantly too there is the need for us to do contact tracing. We are doing that with the World Health people and we are going to trace all the contacts that the man came in with on the air plane and where they went to.”
With respect to the borders he said there are people manning the borders, seaports, airports in Lagos and the state government is in contact with Federal Government officials in charge of it.
Idris urged Lagos residents not to panic over the situation, saying treatment centers will be set up in the state to deal with possible spread of the disease.
Amid the apprehension the incident had caused in the state, the Director, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Abdulsalami Nasidi, a professor, said the Federal Government will support Lagos State in its efforts to prevent the disease from spreading.
“We cannot afford not to support Lagos State in this. We are aware that Lagos is a densely populated state. We would support the state government technically and financially to curtail the spread of the disease” he assured.
According to Oyewale Tomori, a professor, president of Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS), “There is neither any known vaccine nor treatment for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). So I wonder why the minister was saying Nigeria has enough stockpiles of vaccines for it. We do not have any laboratory or facility in the country that can even diagnose Ebola, which also bears similarities with other haemorrhagic fevers like Lassa and Dengue. In the past, we have used Immunoflourescence Antibody (IFA) test for haemorraghic fevers. But that is still not able to detect Ebola clearly,” Tomori, said.
For Maduike Ezeibe, a professor and Head, Veterinary Medicine department at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia state, “Ebola is zoonotic, meaning it affects humans and animals (monkeys). Humans who make contact with the materials contaminated with urine and (or) saliva of infected monkeys or humans can get infected. So people coming from affected countries should be examined for fever and other symptoms before entering Nigeria,”
You are therefore advised to go for medical check-up if you have fever that has defied regular malaria therapies and treatments with antibiotics. This is no sensationalism, as renown scientists have said Nigeria is highly vulnerable to the disease, which is fast spreading across the West African sub-region. They are also suggesting that Nigeria may have recorded cases of the disease without knowing.
All you need to know about Ebola Virus now:
1. It is a Central African disease that has travelled over countries in a living host to West Africa. It is easily spread by physical contact and eating contaminated bush meat. Major hosts are in 5 species of Bats but monkeys and apes are easily infected and killed.
2. It kills in a week, leaving no time to treat an individual.
3. It has no known vaccine or cure.
4. Known cases have been experienced recently in Guinea, Liberia and Central Africa Rep, spreading eastwards and westwards towards Nigeria. Death toll so far in West Africa is over 100.
5. The Ebola outbreak of 2014 is the most challenging one witnessed in Africa.
What you can do?
1. Avoid eating any bush meat for now! Especially apes and bats.
2. Wash your hands as regularly as possible, especially after shaking a stranger. It is spread by contact. Wash your hands often with soap and water, sanitizer is a good alternative.
3.The most straightforward prevention method during Ebola outbreaks is not touching patients, their excretions, and body fluids, or possibly contaminated materials and utensils. Patients should be isolated, and medical staff should be trained and apply strict barrier nursing techniques. (disposable face mask, gloves, goggles, and a gown at all times). Traditional burial rituals, especially those requiring embalming of bodies, should be discouraged or modified.
4, Always wash your fruits and vegetables before cooking.
5, Avoid contact with people with suspicious signs and places of outbreak.
6, Watch out for the warning signs which mimics malaria symptoms.
The following numbers have been given to Lagos state residents to call for further enquiries or report of symptoms or cases of Ebola. 08023169485, 08033086660, 08033065303, 08055281442, 08055329229.
KEMI AJUMOBI
