Ebola: Two Lagos doctors, nurse, woman discharged

Ebola: Two Lagos doctors, nurse, woman discharged

 
Four more people who had been undergoing treatment for the Ebola Virus Disease were on Monday discharged from the Lagos treatment centre after being certified free.The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, made this known in a statement that was issued on Monday after   Natural Solutions Foundation, the manufacturers of Nano Silver,claimed that the drug was the only one capable of curing the deadly   virus.

Chukwu said in the statement by   his Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Mr. Dan Nwomeh, that the four discharged persons   comprised two male medical doctors, a female nurse and a female patient.

He explained that the three medical personnel participated in the treatment of the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who was the first person to die of the disease in Nigeria.

The fourth , according to him,   was at the First Consultant Hospital, Obalende, Lagos when   Sawyer’s case was being managed.

The statement read, “The Minister of Health has announced that four additional confirmed cases of EVD who have been managed successfully and are now disease free have been discharged today(Monday).

“They include two male medical doctors and one female nurse. The three participated in the treatment of the index case(Sawyer) while the fourth person was a female patient at the time the index case was on admission.

“This brings to five, the total number of patients diagnosed with EVD who have now been discharged from hospital.”

Chukwu had on Saturday, announced that a female doctor , who was the first Nigerian to be diagnosed of EVD,   had been discharged .

He had also said that Nigeria had recorded 12 cases of EVD, including   four deaths.     The number of Nigerians under surveillance in Lagos and Enugu, according to him, is 195.

The minister added that the patients under treatment had been moved to the new 40-bed capacity isolation ward provided by the Lagos State Government.

ZMapp not available in large quantity –US

Before the statement was made available to journalists, Chukwu and the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, met in Abuja over the efforts   to contain the virus.

Entwistle told journalists after the meeting that   ZMapp, a US manufactured drug for Ebola treatment   was not available in large quantity.

He howver commended the Federal Government for its efforts to contain the spread of the disease but advised against   placing too much emphasis on the procurement of experimental drugs for the virus.

Nigerians, according to him, should support all directives by government on personal hygiene and minimise physical contact with sick people.

The ambassador assured that Washington would continue to cooperate with the Nigeria   to contain the spread of the disease.

He said, “On the issue of experimental drugs, we’ll see down the road what is possible. But there are not huge quantities now. And we think the focus now needs to be on exactly what you (Nigerians) are doing, the isolation ward and screening. It is especially important that now your government is doing a very good job on contact tracing.

“I noticed that when I flew   into this country on   Thursday night, before I left the plane, I filled out a questionnaire. I was very impressed because I even had to put in my seat number which is a very good idea.

“So, if you ever have to trace the guy sitting next to me, you know where I am. So I have been impressed by these things and I encourage the government of Nigeria to keep at it as I know they will.

“I always say we have a broad partnership between our two countries which means we do things together as equals to make the world a better place. I can’t think of a more important example today than our Ebola cooperation.”

Entwistle noted that both countries had been cooperating effectively on the Ebola issue and would have to keep working hard on it.

He said, “It may last for a while but there are some encouraging signs. The Emergency Operation Centre I understand is working well. The isolation ward I understand is working well.

“As part of the broad partnership between our two countries, we have to just keep collaborating and cooperating and keep working hard.”

Entwistle, said he was in the minister’s office to discuss the anti-Ebola cooperation , adding that he was also in a room in Washington when US Vice-President Biden and President Goodluck Jonathan talked about the Ebola crisis.

He said both leaders “pledged total cooperation between your government and my government on this issue.”

Chukwu also spoke on the meeting with the ambassador through a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Communication.

He said that other experimental drugs were currently being evaluated by the Treatment Research Group for Ebola.

The minister explained that the drugs would be included in the treatment regimen whenever they were cleared .

“As soon as any of the experimental drugs is cleared by the National Health Research Ethics Committee and is made available, we shall include it in the treatment regimen subject to the informed consent of the patient,” Chukwu said.

He recalled that   Nano Silver , which was made available to the Federal Government   last Thursday was not cleared by the National Health Research Ethics Committee.

The minister said, “Although, the drug had since last Thursday been made available to the Emergency Operations Centre in Lagos, it had not been administered to any patient because we were awaiting clearance by the NHREC.

“I regret to inform you that the drug did not meet the requirements of the National Health Research Ethics code. Accordingly, approval for its use was withheld by the NHREC.”

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, told journalists   at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba also on Monday , that the survivors had reunited with their families.

He said, “Out of the eight people in the isolation centre, one was released on Sunday while four were released today(Monday), making it five people that have so far survived the disease. Only three patients are now remaining at the centre.

“So far, 12 people were confirmed infected with Ebola in Nigeria, including the index case and three Nigerians that had died of the disease, leaving eight people at the centre out of which five have been discharged.”

Idris explained that before any Ebola patient could be discharged, he/she must have been symptom-free for three days and tested negative to the disease in line with WHO standard.

He said the four patients discharged were symptom-free for three days and had tested negative to the disease.

Idris ,who added that the discharged people would have to undergo   periodic checks at the centre, disclosed that   three new suspected Ebola cases had been   recorded.

Two of the   cases   in Lagos, he said,   came into contact with   Sawyer. The commissioner added that the blood sample of the third person was brought from Kaduna   as there was no testing facility in the state.

Nano Silver can cure Ebola, says manufacturer

The NSF, the manufacturer of Nano Silver, had earlier on Monday, said the drug was capable of curing   Ebola.

The company’s Managing Director, Dr. Rima Laibow, in a Webcast on Youtube, said the controversial drug had in the past been used in the management of Ebola patients in some African countries.

Laibow, who however did not mention the countries, spoke against the backdrop of the Federal Government’s dismissal of Nano Silver as being unsafe for EVD management.

Chukwu had on Saturday told journalists   that the drug was rejected by the NHREC   because it   failed to meet the safety and ethical requirements.

However, Laibow argued in the webcast that there was no other effective solution against Ebola apart from Nano Siver.

She said,“ Ebola is surging through various parts of Africa and it is just a plane ride from the rest of the world. As of now, it is said that there is no cure or treatment against Ebola and that is not true.

“In fact, there is a well known, well characterised nutrient   against the disease and that is Nano Silver. It is non-toxic and   it does not require refrigeration. It is inexpensive, self sterilising and it can be given to every member of the community from the tiniest baby to the pregnant mother and the most fragile elderly person that is infected.”

Nano Silver, according to her, “leaves the beneficial bacteria and the healthy cells of the patient unaffected but it does kill every pathogen against which it has been tested worldwide without exception. There is no other effective solution against Ebola apart from this.”

On why the drug has not been approved globally for the management of Ebola, Laibow explained that it needed to go through different stages of trial before it could go public.

She stated that NSF’s team of experts were ready to assist any country interested in using the drug for the management of Ebola and other communicable diseases.

Laibow added, “There are different scientific reasons why we could not just go public with it, but it has been brought forward now.

“It is available in large quantities and it is unlimited in its effectiveness. The Natural Solutions Limited and I, stand ready to assist the people of the world in deploying safe, non-toxic, inexpensive and available solution against Ebola and every other communicable disease which

WHO advises Ebola-hit countries to screen travellers

The World Health Organisation has advised   countries affected by Ebola to check people departing at their international airports, seaports and major border crossings and stop those with signs of the virus from traveling.

The United Nations   health agency reiterated in a statement on Monday, that the risk of contracting Ebola inside an aircraft was small .

“Affected countries are requested to conduct exit screening of all persons at international airports, seaports and major land crossings, for unexplained febrile illness consistent with potential Ebola infection. Any person with an illness consistent with EVD   should not be allowed to travel unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation,” it stressed.

You are here: Home / Sports / Ancelotti will play Di Maria Ancelotti will play Di Maria

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti admits he does not know whether or not Angel di Maria wants to leave the European champions but is ready to play the Argentina winger in Tuesday’s Spanish Supercopa first leg against Atletico Madrid.

Di Maria’s future has been the source of much speculation this summer, especially with Real having spent around £85m to bring in World Cup stars James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos to bolster their midfield options, Sky Sports reports.

Manchester United have regularly been linked with a big-money move for the 26-year-old, and fresh media reports on Monday suggested the Red Devils were willing to spend up to £100m on transfer fee and wages to take Di Maria to Old Trafford.

Ancelotti was again asked about the former Benfica forward’s future on Monday ahead of the derby with Atletico, but, not for the first time, the Italian was giving little away – save for the fact Di Maria could play on Tuesday.

Ebola in Nigeria is not ‘epidemic’

Ebola in Nigeria is not ‘epidemic’
 
With over 300 Ebola-related deaths recorded in Guinea since March, the disease is already endemic in that nation, whose southern border nearly wraps around Sierra Leone and crawls through most of Liberia’s northern border. Combined fatalities from both neighbouring countries compare to Guinea and the disease is, in effect, endemic in Liberia and Sierra Leone also. The blood-borne virus spreads from living or deceased patients, contaminated bodily fluids, and infected human or animal tissues. You do not contract it from the fresh air you breathe, the water you drink, properly cooked foods, or casual person-to-person contact. It does not enter the body through the palm of your hands: handshake is only risky when unwashed hands that are already contaminated touch body cavities or injured body parts. Ebola cannot be spread by anybody that is not already infected or anything that is not contaminated with the virus.

Nigeria is over 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) east of Monrovia, with four other safe countries of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin Republic, between them. It was well removed from threat and had been Ebola-free until Sunday, July 2o14. Air travel and the ECOWAS Treaty make nonsense of land borders and enabled a compromised, 40-year-old American from Coon Rapids (25 kilometres or 16 miles North of Minneapolis) Minnesota, to board a sub-continental flight from Monrovia, only to arrive in Lagos indisposed. He was not Nigerian and never lived in Nigeria until this visit. Liberian news agencies that monitored closed-circuit security video from James Sprigg Payne’s Airport described him “lying flat on his stomach” in pain at the departure lounge before boarding ASKY Airline to Lagos. Acute illness prevented him from proceeding to an ECOWAS event in Calabar, Cross River State that would have potentially exposed most southern states, had he gone there by road.

Hospitalisation at a private hospital in Lagos was not for Ebola because the symptoms he presented mimicked malaria or typhoid. Therefore, the hospital was oblivious to his clinical history and its staff became exposed to nosocomial Ebola, even after taking disease-control precautions. Within five days, the American, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, was dead and was correctly labelled Nigeria’s “Ebola index person” by Nigeria’s Health Minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu. His doctor and two nurses tested positive for the virus, while the matron at his hospital succumbed to Ebola, as Nigeria’s only indigenous victim. His diplomatic status may also have put others who served him at risk, causing much anxiety all over the country. The current nationwide state of mass hysteria about Ebola in Nigeria may make every one more careful, but is ultimately unhelpful and counterproductive, especially beyond Lagos. Lost in the paranoia is the fact the Ebola virus does not spread easily and every single positive case can be traced to direct or remote contact with one American “index person”, within a defined area of Lagos, which illustrates classic patterns of epidemiology:

- an infected, symptomatic, patient (Sawyer) travels undiagnosed from an endemic region (Monrovia, Liberia) and transmits the etiology of disease to an otherwise healthy population (Lagos, Nigeria). This has triggered a medical emergency; but an epidemic? …Probably not.

Decontee Sawyer, Patrick’s widow, disclosed that he contracted the bug while caring for his sister, who died of Ebola, Tuesday, on July 8. That fact was sufficient grounds to place Sawyer under voluntary quarantine and travel restrictions. Liberia now regrets that Sawyer “ignored medical advice and escaped out of Liberia”, avoiding contact with airport personnel, and declining handshake from a Liberian immigration staff in the process. It is also rumoured that he became uncooperative when his hospital communicated his positive Ebola status (with unconfirmed reports of pulling off his intravenous infusion, which spilled his Ebola-tainted blood over the premises).

As alarming as all this sounds, it is fortuitous because it is not ordinarily possible to determine how Ebola arrives within national borders. Nigeria, because of how events unfolded, identified the exact source, localised the course, traced the chain of transmission, and limited the epidemiology of Ebola. Full credit for presumptive diagnosis of Sawyer’s Ebola must be given to Nigeria, specifically, the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and Redeemer’s University: both had accurate results within 36 hours. Absent this index Ebola patient, speculation would have been rife about which species of bush-meat was the Nigerian culprit! (Speaking of ‘bush-meat’, while not illegal or unethical, this is no time to patronise them. For those who still must, avoid direct contact with unprocessed bush-meat, handle with gloves, wrap in plastic bags without holes, and wash hands. Since intense heat is a verified anti-viral agent, boil for at least 10 minutes or until all red parts are fully cooked and brown.)

Upon reflection, this episode teaches vital lessons. Infections and diseases are not crimes but realities of life; failure to report them or seek proper diagnosis may be dangerous. Basic laws of infectious diseases can help control their prevalence. It is un-African to speak ill of the departed; so, this is not about Sawyer but the epidemiological consequences of choices we make in a free society – a lesson learnt relatively late in 1981, when five patients in San Francisco presented symptoms that became pandemic AIDS. Cremation of Sawyer’s remains and wholesale incineration of contaminated supplies at his hospital are standard international protocols against infectious agents. Personal hygiene and normal hand washing can do wonders, but concentrated salt solution will inflict irreversible bodily harm with unproven effects on the virus; antiseptic soap is much safer and more effective. Even if bitter kola inhibits the virus in vitro, it is utterly useless in vivo. The decision to go into dialogue with the Christian community via Pastor Enoch Adeboye and Prophet T. B. Joshua ensures that carriers do not cross international borders to be physically present for prayers of faith (Matt. 8: 8 – 10).

The imminent end of an estimated incubation period of two to 21 days (August 17, at most) should provide short-term relief to anxious passengers, airline crew, diplomats, and hospital staff that were exposed to Sawyer. If they knew that they were in close contact with an Ebola patient, they might have approached him with proper protective clothing and not be at potential risk; the single fatality was also avoidable. They can only complicate their predicament by being ashamed to come forward: they have done nothing wrong and, in the abundance of caution, should get tested. Sadly, a couple of positive results are likely, but most of the estimated 177 being monitored should be negative; but this assumption cannot be made without scientific testing. Our leaders can help remove the stigma by volunteering as negative controls for tests.

In a country of 170 million, there are two (the third was announced as this paper was being put to bed on Thursday) confirmed indigenous fatalities from direct contact with the late American ‘index person’, Sawyer. This does not rise to the threshold of an “epidemic”; however, it is still three preventable deaths too many. Lagos State and Nigerian health ministries have provided leadership in epidemiological control. The Nigerian print and electronic media have displayed professionalism in informing the public about the incident without sensationalism.

Finally, it would be irrational, at best, and inhumane, at worst, to regard Nigeria or any Nigerian in transit as a potential risk because the cause, single source, and course of Ebola were relatively well-defined and contained. Left to Donald Trump, the American Ebola patients evacuated from Liberia should be barred from entering their own country. Paranoia must not replace rational caution. If that fateful flight to Nigeria had been off his schedule, and he was symptom-free, Sawyer would have returned to the US for his daughters’ birthdays this August, according to his widow. The US, not Nigeria, would have had an Ebola dilemma in her hands! The Director of the US Centre for Disease Control concurs, but is “…confident that there will not be a large Ebola outbreak in the US”: Amen for Nigeria as well. Given known facts, this is a localised ‘Sporadic’ occurrence and there is no scientific reason for Nigeria to carry ‘Ebola epidemic’ stigma in international media or for her citizens to live in paralysing fear of catching it from air or casual contact.

No free trip to Washington DC

No free trip to Washington DC

The PUNCH newspaper must be on the “bad boys” list in Aso Rock by now. Imagine, President Goodluck Jonathan and his aides were to travel to the United States of America for a summit, and on August 3, 2014, the newspaper had boldly announced: “Summit: US to test Jonathan’s aides, others for Ebola”. Trust that some state officials might take offence at the suggestion that they would be subjected to such an “indignity”. But wasn’t that what the US officials had vowed to do? It means the newspaper took Americans at their word. And it’s just as well because the US is one country where state officials say what they mean, and put energy and resources into implementing what they say; and they are proactive, too, where the safety of their citizens is at issue.

Or, were there no officials in some other countries where officials had looked on for weeks, after Ebola Virus Disease was announced to have killed people in Liberia, until a plane dumped a Liberian at an airport where he contaminated innocent citizens before health officials began to run around? It shows the understanding of some state officials as to why they hold public office. That apart, Nigerians would have loved to see more of a certain personality on TV after he arrived Washington DC for the US-Africa Leaders Summit, but for the sea of other African leaders in attendance. They were so many it would have been impossible for Nigerians to locate a trademark hat, if not for Nigerian journalists who had sweated to search and focus their camera on President Goodluck Jonathan. Filming him side by side with President Barack Obama was another issue, because the host had chosen to talk to the crowd rather than meet each African leader. Anyway, the summit was for the good of Africa; wasn’t that what the host said, although he didn’t hide the real purpose?

It’s been more than a decade since the US began to lose to China in Africa. In that time, the Yankees and their Western allies did more of accusing China of stripping the continent of its natural resources than they took actions themselves, and that was because they had other problems to contend with. Now, two major issues make America look Africa’s way: The potential for more economic growth, and a US aid programme that had delivered little to recipients. “We have now mobilised a total of $26bn for Africa”, Obama had said to the continent’s leaders at the summit. Then, he added that, “We do want to help Africans trade with each other. Because the market with the greatest potential is often in the market right next door.” He didn’t hide the other intention behind all of that: “We want Africa to buy American goods, and vice-versa”. His Secretary of Commerce thinks of America first, then connects all of it to Africa: “Investing in Africa will create jobs in North Carolina…Investing in Africa would support workers in California, and strengthen the health of patients in Nigeria” because a US company had signed an MoU to “construct a state of the art cancer institute in Ibadan.” With the US companies alone promising $14bn investment in Africa, it’s a shift in the US foreign policy approach to the continent. Previously, aid was the tool. But by focusing on private investment, the US acknowledges that change is better driven within the continent itself. This benefits the US too because the government no longer enjoys citizens’ trust to continue to pour taxpayers’ money into aid-programmes that don’t effect real change.

Yet, the framework under which African leaders undertook the visit to Washington DC mustn’t be forgotten. It mustn’t, even though no one on the continent including the African Union that is aware of the larger picture seems interested in explaining to Africans the connection between the summit and its strategic framework to develop Africa. In fact, 24 hours after the summit, the first 50 sites on Google with any meaningful comment on the event were from the West. The US-Africa Summit may be the first, but from Africa’s position, the framework under which it happened dates back to 2002, a year when the AU designed the framework for intensive development of the continent called the New Economic Partnership for African Development. Since 2004, there has been the Africa-India Partnership; Africa-South America; Africa-Turkey, and later on in 2006 there was the African-Japan summit. China is not left out. All of that had happened at a time the US didn’t take interest in Africa, a time development partners from the West had the habit of offering Africa what they thought it needed; in the event, China offered Africa what it said it needed in the very area of its need, and in a down-to-earth kind of way, stripped of all distant and cold diplomatic niceties. Now, it’s within the framework of NEPAD and other AU development strategies that African leaders welcome the US back, while putting on the table what they need from foreign partners under the umbrella of Agenda 2063. This background is needed because this writer has observed that even in Nigeria, officials don’t deliberately break these issues down for citizens to connect with, although the President’s men regularly announce wherever their principal is going.

Well, officials may not have explained to Nigerians why their leader had to join other African leaders to meet with Obama in Washington DC, but Nigerians out there took their President to task. Even in a situation where he had addressed foreign businessmen as well as Nigerians in the Diaspora, the earliest question he was made to respond to was about holding credible elections in Nigeria. The President’s response is reserved for another day. But he had talked about education too, housing needs in Nigeria, adding that ideas for the way forward in developing Nigeria were welcome from anyone in the Diaspora. Such idealists would have to put their dreams on paper and submit to relevant Nigerian agencies though. It’s cool to hear the President say that, except that the last time some indefatigable Nigerians submitted an idea to a government agency under the Federal Ministry of Culture about packaging Nigeria’s football team for Brazil 2014, and Nigerian banks had parted with funds for the project, a female Director-General in charge of the agency and the fund had allegedly collected signed agreement papers on the deal from the indefatigable Nigerians and chew them while the whole world watched in Brazil. Her type belongs to the class of state officials that make patriotic Nigerians lose the zeal to come forward.

Alright, at the summit in Washington DC. The Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, wasn’t missing in action. Of course, she talked about money: “I think it’s quite a good summit for us”, she had said to reporters, counting effortlessly innumerable businesses that the US companies promised to bring to Nigeria. And didn’t everyone see “Nigeria’s big boy”, Aliko Dangote, on the podium? He talked about how to make real money in Africa, naturally. In all of this, what foreigners who regularly extend summit invitations to Africa really want shouldn’t be forgotten. And they will continue to invite because where flowers are, there the bees will gather. All summits are similar in that they are wrapped in “co-operation” and “equal partnership” packages, even though they come down to money and promised investment: The EU has given $39bn; Japan, $32bn; China, $20bn; India, $5bn; but what France promised is unquantified, as well as that of the Arab nations, all of that in the last three years alone.

Every “co-operation” and “equal partnership” package comes with a tag, and that shouldn’t be forgotten too. From the slave trade era to the age of globalisation, each of these outsiders’ surge of interest in Africa has always been more to the advantage of those that initiate it, and who already has their targets neatly calculated to the last dollar. If outsiders see what they want in Africa and have been smart enough to always get it, it means it’s a world for the smart. African leaders and their aides wouldn’t return from Washington DC, slap backs for having been on the trip to Yankees’ country and thereafter go to sleep, would they? Any continent would have to be smarter than that if it must beat smart folk in their own game.

An encounter with Ebola in Obalende

An encounter with Ebola in Obalende

“Oga! Oga! go back, I say go back, no go dat side o. One man don catch the Ebola disease and e wan die; you better run for your life!”

I had arrived Obalende, a popular bus station in central Lagos having alighted from an in-bound BRT bus from the peninsular Ajah area of the city a moment earlier and walked straight into the Ebola virus disease scare that had thrown the bus station into an uproar. Not that Obalende, the once notorious city centre synonymous with Nigeria’s socio-political history had ever possessed the serene ambience of its neighbouring colonial GRA of Ikoyi but even on its saner days, the oldest bus station in Lagos was always in a state of bedlam. But on the day I passed through its maze of human and vehicular commotion, Obalende seemed to have played host to a thousand demons.

People ran in different directions. One woman almost pushed me in the path of an oncoming bus driven wildly by a fleeing commercial bus driver. A cart pusher, eager to get away from the clutches of the deadly Ebola ran his omolanke (cart) straight into a crowd of fleeing pedestrians. Panicky street vendors, oblivious of the cause of the chaos but on hearing the word “Ebola” abandoned their wares and fled. The disheveled-looking man who had previously warned me not to get close ran barefooted, his shoes in his hand. He wheezed past me as if he had seen a ghost.

Amidst the pandemonium around me, I stood for a moment to observe the scenario. Why run when I could not see my pursuer? Then, I looked up to see the source of the frenzy. Just ahead of me and in front of a decrepit gas station, a man was on the ground, face up and spread-eagled. I walked the distance to the scene. The man on the ground was obviously in distress. But in Lagos, the scene was familiar. The man on the ground could be a homeless victim of hunger or a serial alcoholic inebriated on the local brew, paraga capable of knocking its consumers into a state of temporary coma. But no one was willing to go any closer. The fear of Ebola has become the beginning of wisdom. However, this Nigerian needed help. I thought there was nothing to fear since Ebola can only be transmitted through exchange of fluids and close body contact. I stood close enough to maintain a safe distance. Now, some of those who had fled earlier had also gathered at a distance to watch the scene unfold.

I joined the other “Good Samaritans” who were courageous enough to offer some help to the man “Ebola victim”. One of those gathered contacted the Lagos State mobile ambulance nearby. As we discussed other options, the man suddenly moved. He opened his eyes and sat up. He looked dazed. Then, he called for water. A vendor, with a tray of the ubiquitous pure sachet water balanced on her head threw some sachets at him. He guzzled the water and poured the rest on his head. We were visibly relieved when he stood up and sat on a rickety bench nearby. Then, he beckoned on the crowd to come closer. Still, no one was willing to take the risk. Then, the man reached in his bag to produce a hospital card and some drugs. On a closer look, the drugs seemed for the treatment of hypertensive patients. It was then that I concluded he might have temporarily passed out.

We contacted his family through the phone number he provided. His house was within the vicinity. Not long after, a middle aged woman who identified herself as his wife arrived with some relatives. Fortuitously, the LAGBUS ambulance also arrived at the same time. The man was wheeled into the ambulance and driven off. The incident was scary. Moments later, Obalende which had temporarily come to a standstill soon resumed its chaotic rhythm. As I walked away from the scene, I thought how lucky the man was because he could have been left for dead for the fear of Ebola. But do you blame them? Since the virus found its way into Lagos by a “crazy” Liberian traveller named Patrick Sawyer, who also became the first Nigerian victim of the disease, its potency to spread and kill its victims had created mass hysteria.

The fear of the Ebola Virus Disease in Africa’s most populous nation has made the terror campaign of Boko Haram seem like a child’s play. The EVD which has killed about 1000 West Africans and still counting since February may be Nigeria’s new killer. In a country where death stalks the citizens like a shadow, the fear is real. For one, the level of poverty has worsened. According to the World Bank, more than 100 million of Nigeria’s 170 million population live in poverty. More of that figure cannot access nor afford quality health care. Our hospitals are worse than consulting clinics. The emergence of the EVD had also occurred at a time when resident doctors are on a nationwide strike. They had been protesting poor working conditions in a country where the political elite go abroad to treat ailment s minor as headache.

The poor living condition of the masses especially in Lagos, where three quarters of its estimated 18 million population live in crowded slums, will also aid the spread of the virus. Despite official information as to how observing simple hygiene can prevent transmission, conspiracy theories about Ebola have gripped the largely illiterate population. Some Nigerians have bought into the notion that Ebola is a ploy by the West to wipe off Africans. This theory was fuelled by the alleged “refusal” of the Obama administration to, until Tuesday, release to the affected West African countries the experimental serum ZMapp. Nothing can be more ridiculous. Some religious entrepreneurs have also claimed Ebola is “God’s way of punishing Africans for their ‘sins’”. This may eventually pave the way for commercial miracle healing.

As the Nigerian government battles to contain the spread of a disease that will make the AIDS and malaria green with envy, Nigerians have begun to adopt desperate and bizarre remedies to prevent infection. One of such is the “hot salty water solution”. A suggestion, that since has been known to be a joke, that by bathing with salt mixed with water and drinking the same can prevent transmission went viral over the weekend. That has proved fatal already. According to a report in a national newspaper, about 20 Nigerians have allegedly died due to excessive salt intake. Nigerians obviously do not want this Ebola. They have enough national tragedies to grapple with. The kidnapped Chibok girls have still not been rescued over 100 days after. We cannot afford to be afflicted by another potential national calamity.

Let’s hope Ebola does not spread to the level of an epidemic. No thanks to Sawyer whom President Goodluck Jonathan angrily, and rightly too, referred to as a “mad man” for adding to the list of his problems.

Ebola virus disease (EVD)

Ebola virus disease (EVD)

"The possible consequences of further international spread are particularly serious in view of the virulence of the virus, the intensive community and health facility transmission patterns, and the weak health systems in the currently affected and most at-risk countries," it said in a statement.
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
Fatality rate can reach 90% - but the current outbreak is about 55%
Incubation period is two to 21 days
There is no vaccine or cure
Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
Fruit bats are considered to be virus' natural host

Ebola: We will arrest false cure claimers says NAFDAC

Ebola: We will arrest false cure claimers says NAFDAC

We will clampdown on people making false claims that they have products that can cure Ebola virus disease, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned
The Director - General of the agency, Dr. Paul Orhii who gave the warning in Lagos restated that Ebola virus disease has no cure for now and there is no definite drug that can cure the disease.
The NAFDAC. Said it would not take lightly any such advertisement of a disease that is currently ravaging the  West African countries.
Orhii warned that anybody making false claims that he or she has products that can cure Ebola virus disease (EVD) to stop it or face the wrath of the law.
His words, 'The honourable . Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi has stated categorically that there is no cure yet for Ebola
He lamented that unscrupulous people are trying to take advantage of the EVD outbreak in the region to deceive vulnerable people by making claims that they have a remedy for the disease.
He said those who claim they possess a cure for Ebola should do so only after it has been certified. 'They should go through the normal 'scientific' process,' he added.
He said for now, EVD has no known cure adding that 'It would be a good thing if the cure is found in Nigeria but things must be done according to lay down rules.'
Nigerians are desperate and will be ready to buy anything if they have the virus. If anyone has a cure let him come to the agency. We will follow up but we are not going to allow anybody to take advantage of the sick. We will arrest anybody found making false claims.'

Mother of baby born without genital duped of N5m

Mother of baby born without genital duped of N5m

A 38 year-old woman, Charity Atoe has called on the police to help her unravel the location of a woman whom she alleged eloped with funds donated for the surgery of her three years old son, Timothy, who was born without genitals.
Charity who gave the name of the woman as Blessing Asatu said the total money donated was about N5m.
She was at the premises of the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists to narrate her story.
Charity said doctors at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital demanded for N900,000 to perform a corrective surgery and that efforts to raise the money in Edo state failed which made her to go to Lagos State to seek for help.
It was on her way to Redeemed Christian Church of God that she claimed to have met Blessing who offered to help her by calling journalists who made her son's plight public.
'My husband ran away after he has spent lots of money on this condition. He is a bricklayer and I used to sell. I have children for two husbands. Two girls for another man and two boys for this man that ran away. I have not seen my husband for the past eight months. I have been to several places and no help came. I have been looking for help for the past three years.
'After looking for help in Benin without any forthcoming. I decided to go to TB Joshua church. On my way, someboday said I should go to Redeemed Church. It was where I was to buy sachet water to drink that I met one woman by name Blessing Usatu.
'She promised to help me and within few minutes I saw pressmen asking me questions and the report was published the next day alongside my photographs. After two days, I started receiving calls from individuals across the world stating that they have paid money into an account provided alongside the story. I did not know that the account was in her name. She has a store at Ikeja opposite the Redeem church. We went to the hospital at Lagos and Dr. Bankole asked her to give me the money to go and do the operation in Benin but she refused. I used to sleep at Ijesha outside The Lord Chosen Church.
'Somebody brought N600,000 cash which I saw. I was given N100,000 and the woman said she would keep the rest. I later gave her N80,000 out of the N100,000. Whenever I am going for check-up, she would give me N2000. She said I should go and call my husband before she will give me the money. I went to the Zenith bank and the bank officials my picture was not in the account. I really need help. I do not know that the woman was out to dupe me. I have been calling her and her number is not connecting.'

FG not behind attack on Buhari —IGP

FG not behind attack on Buhari —IGP

The acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, has cleared the Federal Government of involvement in recent bombings in Kaduna State, which targeted Islamic cleric, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi and former head of state, Muhammadu  Buhari.
Abba, spoke on Monday at his maiden meeting with all Assistant Inspector Generals of Police (AIGs) and Commissioners of Police (CPs) at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
'A team that was made up of not only of general duty detectives, but also forensic experts, visited the scene and some of the victims in the hospital and even those in the mortuary.
'They conducted interviews with victims and witnesses, including General Buhari, those that were with him when the incident happened and did a lot of other things that maybe we need not mention all of them here,' he said.
He said so far, the findings did not indicate that the Federal Government was involved in either of the two incidents, adding that the military had in their custody one suspect, who was arrested at the scene of the second bombing, adding that the said suspect was previously arrested twice by police at a station close to the incident.
The IGP said he decided to gather all senior police officers in Abuja to enable them to discuss what could be done to improve on the situation on the ground.

Ebola discoverer says would sit next to victim on train

Ebola discoverer says would sit next to victim on train

Professor Peter Piot, the Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

  
The scientist who helped discover the Ebola virus said the outbreak in west Africa was unlikely to trigger a major epidemic outside the region, adding he would happily sit next to an infected person on a train.

But Professor Peter Piot told AFP that a 'really bad' sense of panic and lack of trust in the authorities in west Africa had contributed to the world's largest-ever outbreak.

The Belgian scientist, now based in Britain, urged officials to test experimental vaccines on people with the virus so that when it inevitably returns, the world is prepared.

Since March, there have been 1,201 cases of Ebola and 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that the crisis is set to get worse and that there is no overarching strategy to handle the crisis.

Piot co-discovered the Ebola virus as a 27-year-old researcher in 1976.

He is now director of the prestigious London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was previously executive director of the United Nations' HIV/AIDS programme UNAIDS.

Even if someone carrying Ebola were to fly to Europe, the United States or another part of Africa, 'I don't think that will give rise to a major epidemic,' he told AFP in an interview on Wednesday.

'Spreading in the population here, I'm not that worried about it,' he said.

- 'I was scared' - 
His insights are born of deep experience in the field, highlighted by his impressive CV and the mementos from around the world that dot his office in London.

Piot helped identify Ebola when the laboratory where he was working in Antwerp was sent a blood sample from a Catholic nun who had died in what was then Zaire and is now DR Congo.

From the blood, they isolated a new virus which was later confirmed to be Ebola.

He later went to Yambuku, a village in Zaire's Equateur province, where an epidemic had taken hold.

'People were devastated because in some villages, one in 10, one in eight people could die from Ebola,' he said.

'I was scared but I was 27 so you think you are invincible.'

Researchers noticed most of the infections were among women aged between 20 and 30 and clustered around a clinic where they went for pre-natal consultations.

It turned out that the virus was being transmitted through a handful of needles which were being reused to give injections to pregnant women.

There were also a string of outbreaks linked to funerals.

'Like in any culture, someone who dies is washed, the body is laid out but you do this with bare hands, without gloves. Someone who died from Ebola, that person is covered with virus because of vomitus, diarrhoea, blood,' he said.

'That's how then you get new outbreaks and the same thing is happening now in west Africa.'

- 'Fear a driving force' - 
He said recent history in Liberia and Sierra Leone was complicating efforts to tackle the deadly virus, which kills as many as nine-tenths of the people it infects.

'Let's not forget that these countries are coming out of decades of civil war,' he said.

'Liberia and Sierra Leone are now trying to reconstruct themselves so there is a total lack of trust in authorities, and that combined with poverty and very poor health services I think is the explanation why we have this extensive outbreak now.'

Staff are also often poorly equipped with no protective gear or gloves, he added.

While there are a couple of experimental Ebola vaccines and treatments which have shown promising results in animals, these need to be tested on people, he added.

'I think that the time is now, at least in capitals, to offer this kind of treatment for compassionate use but also to find out if it works so that for the next epidemic, we are ready,' he said.

'It is quite clear that new viruses will emerge all the time and Ebola will come again hopefully not to this extent.'

Confirmed, probable, and suspect cases and deaths from Ebola virus disease in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone,