Ebola Virus Hits Lagos

The deadly Ebola Virus Disease which has killed
over over 500 people in West Africa has hit Lagos,
the Lagos state government says.
Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, presently, has no cure
and is ravaging neighbouring West African
countries with many people killed and nations still
at risk of the deadly disease.
At a news conference in Alausa, Lagos, Southwest
Nigeria on Thursday, Special Adviser to the
Governor of Lagos, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, told
newsmen that a 40-year old Liberian, working for
a West African Organiation in Moronvia, Liberia,
who arrived Lagos last Sunday is suspected to
have the disease.
She said details of the suspected case were
obtained from a private health facility in the state,
which she refused to mention, saying that history
taken revealed that the 40-year old man had no
contact with EVD, did not visit any person with
EVD in the hospital and neither did he partake in
the burial of any person who died of the disease.
“However, on account of working and living in an
endemic region for EVD, and the presentation of
non-specific constitutional symptoms and signs
(fever, malaise, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea
etc) associated with EVD, a high index of
suspicion was raised.
“Based on this, blood samples were taken to
Virology Reference Laboratory, Lagos University
Teaching Hospital, LUTH, on Tuesday. Preliminary
results necessitated the confirmation of EVD at a
World Health Organisation, WHO Reference
Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal which is actively in
process,” she said.
According to her, the patient’s condition is
considered stale while the health facility had since
initiated Universal Safety Precautionary measures
to prevent spread of the disease and guaranteed
safety of other patients.
Adeshina said the Federal Ministry of Health,
including Port Health Services were partners with
the state government in areas of contact tracing
and other specialised care, urging Lagosians to
remain calm and take appropriate measures for
the prevention of the disease.
The Special Adviser explained that Ebola virus
disease is caused by a virus which natural
reservoir of virus is not completely known,
stressing that fruit bats have been considered to
be the natural host of the virus.
“The virus can be spread through close contact
with the blood, body fluids, organ and tissues of
infected animals; direct contact with blood, organ
or body secretions of an infected person. The
transmission of the virus by other animals like
monkey and chimpanzee cannot be ruled out,”
she said.
Adeshina noted that those at the highest risk of
the disease include health-workers; and families
or friends of an infected person who could be
infected in the course of feeding, holding and
caring for them.
She stressed that Ebola virus disease should be
suspected in persons who develop bleeding from
the body openings like the mouth, nose, rectum
and ear; a close contact with a person who is
infected; or health worker who had treated either
suspected or confirmed infected person.
“Early symptoms of the disease include fever,
headache, chills, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, sore
throat, backache, and joint pains. Later symptoms
include bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose,
bleeding from the mouth and rectum, eye swelling,
swelling of the genitals and rashes all over the
body that often contain blood. It could progress
to coma, shock and death,” Adeshina explained.
Source pmnews.