EBOLA VIRUS KILLS MAN IN NIGERIA

A Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who is a consultant at
the Ministry of Finance, who had been quarantined
since falling ill after arriving Lagos for a
conference last Sunday owing to Ebola disease,
has died.
A Liberian government official, who spoke under
the condition of anonymity, said the news of
Sawyer’s death was relayed to Liberia by the
Nigerian embassy on Friday morning.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that Sawyer might have
contracted the virus from his sister, who died at a
Catholic Hospital about three weeks ago. He had
told friends that his sister’s husband had fled the
home after the wife died and that he convinced
him to report to health authorities to check for
signs of Ebola.
The Lagos State Government had announced that
Sawyer was being tested for the deadly Ebola
virus in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital
and the World Health Organisation in Dakar.
Sawyer’s death is the first recorded case of one of
the world’s deadliest diseases in Nigeria.
The virus has killed 632 people across Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak began
in February, straining a string of weak health
system despite international help.
According to World Health Organisation, the virus,
which starts off with flu-like symptoms and often
ends with horrific haemorrhaging, has affected
about 1,048 people and killed an estimated 632
people.
Ebola is both rare and very deadly. Since the first
outbreak in 1976, Ebola viruses have infected
thousands of people and killed about one-third of
them. Symptoms can come very quickly and kills
fast.
On Thursday, a spokesman for the World Health
Organisation in Geneva confirmed Nigeria had
“one suspected case” and samples had been sent
to a WHO lab for testing.
The special adviser on public health to the Lagos
State Government, Yewande Adeshina, told a
news conference that Sawyer had collapsed on
arrival at Lagos airport from Liberia on Sunday.
He was rushed to hospital and put in an isolation
ward.
She said, “The patient was admitted and detained
on suspicion of possible EBV infection, while
blood sample collection and testing was initiated
and results are pending.”
Sawyer’s death comes shortly after reports from
Sierra Leone that the head doctor fighting the
tropical virus has caught the disease. 39-year-old
Sheik Umar Khan, has been hailed as a national
hero by Liberia’s health minister.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has tracked
down all the passengers that travelled with the
victim in an unnamed Lagos Hospital and are
being investigated.
The government has also placed on red alert all
ports of entry into Nigeria including Airports,
seaports and land boarders following the
discovery of the Virus.
The Minster of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu,
stated this during a joint press briefing held on
Friday evening in Abuja with the Minister of
Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, while confirming
the death of a victim of Ebola Virus at a Hospital
in Lagos.
He said, “All passengers that came in contact with
the patient have been traced and are being
investigated in line with the international health
regulations of the World Health Organization and
in keeping with international best practices.”