The Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu on Friday
confirmed two new cases of Ebola infection in Lagos, which now brings to
nine, the number of cases recorded in Nigeria so far.
He also announced that 139 people were currently under surveillance.
Professor Onyebuchi made these known while addressing newsmen in
Lagos to give an update on the country’s situation as regards the
disease which spread panic across the nation between Thursday and Friday
morning..
According to the minister, aside the two fresh cases, there were also six suspected cases which had not been confirmed.
“The total number of cases, as of this morning, (Friday) stands at
nine out of which eight are Nigerians and one American-Liberian.
“Out of the nine confirmed cases, seven are alive and are receiving treatment In Lagos,” he said.
He also noted that the fatality rate so far in Nigeria was between 30
to 26 per cent, adding that the rate in all other ECOWAS countries
stood at 65 per cent.
“I am saying this to enlighten people that having Ebola does not mean
you have been condemned to death, survivors have been recorded,”
Onyebuchi said.
Also speaking at the press briefing, Minister of Information, Labaran
Maku, condemned in totality false reports circulating that taking a
salted hot water bath could protect one and serve as an antidote to the
virus.
The health minister also described the report as “a wicked lie,”
adding that “I believe Nigeria has laws in this regard. Such
perpetrators must be fished out and prosecuted through the appropriate
channels.”
The two ministers maintained that the best and most effective way to
handle the situation was to maintain a regular hand washing culture, use
hand sanitisers and reduce handshaking situations with other people.
Fears over the deadly Ebola virus spread across the country on Friday
with panic-stricken Nigerians making frantic efforts to take
precautions against contracting the disease.
Measures ranging from the sensible to the ridiculous were circulated
all over the country as the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a
global emergency over the spread of the disease.
A message advising Nigerians to take their bath with hot water mixed
with salt in order to avoid the Ebola Virus disease went viral overnight
in Nigeria.
The same mixture is also recommended to be taken to ward off the disease.
The spread of the message, kept several Nigerians from the North to the South awake all night creating nationwide panic.
Meanwhile, experts have warned that bathing with salt is no cure for
Ebola and that it might even lead to other health complications.
Dr Olajimi Sodipo, a senior registrar, department of Family Health,
Lagos state University, (LASU) said on Channels Television on Friday
morning that bathing with salt in water is risky as it could lead to
breakage of skin which could aid contracting the virus easily.
Also, the President of Medical and Dental Consultants Association of
Nigeria (MDCAN), Dr Stephen Oluwole, in an interview with Saturday
Tribune declared rather ominously that he “ would say that there is a
chance for Ebola epidemic now in Nigeria “ because the “initial
isolation was not put there right from the onset.” He added that
avoiding handshakes would also not help much.
“People say this, forgetting that that handshake is not the only way
we come in contact with other people. If you take an object from
somebody, a contact has been established. You do not want to shake hands
but you take something from someone in your hands – this transmits
something to you. Thinking that if you do not shake hands, you are
protected from the virus will be wrong. What I am saying is that
avoidance of handshake would give false hope because people might assume
that this is all they need to do. If a patient is close to you; living
in your house, you come in contact in so many other ways and you do not
know. The problem is that you will not know the point at which you had a
contact with the person. That is the issue. Somebody might already be
carrying the virus but the disease has not blown out and the person is
associating with you before he has the fever, “ he said.
WHO declares Ebola epidemic an international health emergency
West Africa’s Ebola epidemic is an “extraordinary event” and now
constitutes an international health risk, the World Health Organisation
(WHO) said on Friday.
The Geneva-based U.N. health agency said the possible consequences of
a further international spread of the outbreak, which has killed almost
1,000 people in four West African countries, were “particularly
serious” in view of the virulence of the virus.
“A coordinated international response is deemed essential to stop and
reverse the international spread of Ebola,” the WHO said in a statement
after a two-day meeting of its emergency committee on Ebola.
The declaration of an international emergency will have the effect of raising the level of vigilance on the virus.
“The outbreak is moving faster than we can control it,” the WHO’s
director-general Margaret Chan told reporters on a telephone briefing
from the WHO’s Geneva headquarters.
“The declaration … will galvanise the attention of leaders of all
countries at the top level. It cannot be done by the ministries of
health alone.”
The agency said that while all states with Ebola transmission – so
far Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone – should declare a
national emergency, there should be no general ban on international
travel or trade.
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“This can be stopped”
Ebola has no proven cures and there is no vaccine to prevent
infection, so treatment focuses on alleviating symptoms such as fever,
vomiting and diarrhea – all of which can contribute to severe
dehydration.
Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s head of health security, stressed that, with
the right measures to deal with infected people, the spread of Ebola –
which is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids – could
be stopped.
“This is not a mysterious disease. This is an infectious disease that
can be contained,” he told reporters. “It is not a virus that is spread
through the air.”
Fukuda said it was important that anyone known to have Ebola should
be immediately isolated and treated and kept in isolation for 30 days.
“Based on scientific studies, people who have infection can shed virus
for up to 30 days,” he said.
The current outbreak, in which at least 1,711 people have so far been
infected, of whom 932 have died, is the most severe in the almost 40
years since Ebola was identified in humans.
The WHO said this was partly because of the weakness of the health
systems in the countries currently affected, which lacked human,
financial and material resources.
It also said inexperience in dealing with Ebola outbreaks and
misperceptions of the disease, including how it is transmitted,
“continue to be a major challenge in some communities.”
“If we do not in global solidarity come together to help these
countries, they will be set back for many years,” Chan said. She noted
the three hardest-hit nations had only begun to emerge and rebuild after
“years of conflict and difficulties”.
Although most cases of Ebola are in the remote area where Guinea
borders Sierra Leone and Liberia, alarm over the spread of the disease
increased last month when a U.S. citizen died in Nigeria after traveling
there by plane from Liberia.
