The decontamination exercise being carried out by a team from the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the University of Port Harcourt (UPTH) morgue is now complete, Charles Tobin-West, chairman of the Management Advisory Committee (MAC), has said.
Although the exercise was restricted at the mortuary where the Ebola victim in the state, the doctor that treated the ECOWAS diplomat, was brought for embalmment, workers refused to go to other sections of the hospital. This was coupled with uncertainties over the fate of the returning striking doctors who had been suspended by the Federal Government before the strike was called off.
Our correspondent, who was at the venue saw workers who refused to move in, saying management did not inform them that the corpse of an Ebola victim was lodged in the place. The gates to the UPTH were firmly locked for most of Friday.
Tobin-West, however, told newsmen that the hospital authorities were however, unaware that the late Iyke Enemuo died of such a disease, saying the entire morgue had been treated by the team from WHO, and that the place would be safe again for use after the day.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Ministry of Health has said that the wife of the late medical doctor has been flown to Lagos for proper care because the Lagos centre was no longer busy. The commissioner, Sampson Parker, in his daily briefing, said 160 persons have so far been traced for isolation.
Parker said it was advisable to move the infected woman out of the state because of emotional reasons caused by her immediate surroundings. Many have come down heavily on her husband, the late doctor, for accepting the secret deal with an Ebola patient and for exposing his wife (also a medical doctor) and their three-month baby to high risks.
The commissioner advised the state to concentrate on tracing and tracking down those who may have had contact with either the diplomat (who incidentally survived) or the late doctor, saying it was an important task.
Ignatius Chukwu
