An Ebola outbreak in Nigeria’s oil
producing hub of Port Harcourt could spread wider and faster than in the
financial capital, Lagos, the World Health Organization warned on Thursday.
The UN health body said the arrival
of the virus in Port Harcourt, which is 435 kilometres (270 miles) east of
Lagos, showed “multiple high-risk opportunities for transmission of the virus
to others”.
The haemorrhagic fever, which has
hit five countries in West Africa and caused nearly 2,000 deaths this year,
first arrived in Nigeria when a Liberian finance ministry official died in
Lagos on July 25. Continue
He was taken from the city’s airport
to a private hospital by two officials from the West African regional bloc
ECOWAS.
One of the officials later died of
the disease but the other evaded detection to travel to Port Harcourt, where he
fell ill and was treated in secret at a city hotel room by medical doctor Ike
Enemuo from August 1-3.
The ECOWAS official recovered but
the WHO said Enemuo continued to treat patients at his private clinic and
operated on at least two people, despite showing symptoms from August 11 of
Ebola — of which he later died.
“On 13 August, his symptoms
worsened; he stayed at home and was hospitalized on 16 August,” the WHO said in
an emailed statement.
“Prior to hospitalization, the
physician had numerous contacts with the community, as relatives and friends
visited his home to celebrate the birth of a baby.
“Once hospitalized, he again had
numerous contacts with the community, as members of his church visited to
perform a healing ritual said to involve the laying on of hands.”
Over the six days he spent in
hospital “the majority” of healthcare staff treated him while two doctors
performed an abdominal scan at an ultrasound clinic the day before his death,
the statement added.
“Given these multiple high-risk
exposure opportunities, the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Port Harcourt
has the potential to grow larger and spread faster than the one in Lagos,” it
added.
A total of 255 people were currently
under surveillance in Port Harcourt for signs of Ebola, Nigeria’s Health
Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said on Wednesday.
An elderly woman who was a patient
at the hospital where Enemuo was treated died from the disease, taking the
number of victims in Nigeria to seven out of 18 confirmed cases.
Enemuo’s wife — who is also a doctor
— was in an isolation unit in Lagos, while his sister is under quarantine in
Port Harcourt.
An
Ebola outbreak in Nigeria’s oil producing hub of Port Harcourt could
spread wider and faster than in the financial capital, Lagos, the World
Health Organization warned on Thursday. - See more at:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/issues-warning-ebola-port-harcourt/#sthash.pQOgN2tS.dpuf
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