Press Statement Of Ebola Virus

Nigeria has now recorded seven (7) confirmed
cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). The first
one was the index case-the imported case
from Liberia of which the victim is now late.
Yesterday, 5th August, 2014, the first known
Nigerian to die of the EVD was recorded and
this was one of the nurses that attended to the
Liberian. The other five cases are currently
being treated at the Isolation ward in Lagos.
It is pertinent to note that: i. All the Nigerians
diagnosed of the EVD were primary contacts of
the index case. ii. The 24/7 Emergency
Operations Centre which I intimated you of in
my last press
conference will be fully functional by tomorrow.
It will be headed by Dr. Faisal Shuaibu as the
Incident Manager. He will later today lead a 6-
man inter-agency team drawn from National
Primary Health Care
Development Agency (NPHCDA), the US CDC,
the WHO, UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation to Lagos to complete the
setting up of the Centre. They will be joined by
the other personnel from the Lagos State
Government and the federal hospitals in the
Lagos area as well as the Nigeria Centre for
Disease Control.
I have also appointed a Director of
Communication and Community Mobilization
who will be based in Lagos- Prof. O. Onajole of
the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. We
are embarking on recruiting additional health
personnel to strengthen the team who are
currently managing the situation in Lagos.
We are making arrangements to procure
Isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing
isolation wards in all the states of the
federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
We are also setting up a special team to
provide counseling and psychosocial support
to patients, identified contacts and their
families.

Ebola, now a matter of national emergency, Federal Government declares

The Federal government has declared the Ebola
outbreak in Nigeria a matter of national
Emergency, adding that everyone is now at risk of
being infected.
Speaking with State House correspondence at the
end of today's Federal Executive Council meeting,
the Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu
said the Nigerian government has written to the
Director of the United State Centre for Disease
Control to request for the release of some of the
unapproved ZMAG drug which has proven to be
useful in the treatment of the Ebola disease. He
said the Federal government awaits a response
from the United state government and hopeful if
the drugs are released, they could be used to treat
the confirmed cases of the Ebola virus disease in
Nigeria. Continue...
The Minister advised Nigerians to avoid handshake
as much as possible, stating that the virus is both
contagious and infectious. He also said the virus
could also be contacted through the sharing of
bedspreads, pillow cases and towels among other
personal effects with infected person. He said the
disease is not airborne but at close range of a
1meter from an infected person, the disease
droplets can be transmitted.
The Minister also revealed that Isolation tent for
each confirmed case cost the government as
much as N20million. As regards the corpse of a
Nigerian brought in from Liberia last week into
Anambra state which caused Ebola scare in the
state, the Minister said thorough examination on
the corpse showed the man did not die of the
deadly disease.
As part of strategies to rise to the national
emergency, Chukwu said a website,
www.ebolaalert.org , has been designed to offer
information on the virus.