Nigeria: Lagos Probes Alleged Case of Ebola Virus, Urges Caution

THE Lagos State government has begun an investigation into the alleged case of Ebola virus in the state. There was a widely circulated but unconfirmed report that a hospital in Obalende has a patient with the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). . Also, researchers have uncovered a way the malaria parasite becomes resistant to an investigational drug. The discovery, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, United States, also is relevant for other infectious diseases including bacterial infections and tuberculosis. According to the report, which was not confirmed by the Lagos State Ministry of Health or the Federal Ministry of Health, a Liberian who came into the country a few days ago was admitted with symptoms such as high fever, headache, severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and bleeding. However, Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, told journalists yesterday that the ministry has begun investigation into the alleged case of Ebola virus even as she called on residents to remain calm and take appropriate measures to prevent and control an outbreak of the disease in the state. On the suspected case of EVD in Lagos, Adeshina noted that the State Ministry of Health received information from a private facility in the state concerning a suspected case three days ago, precisely on Tuesday ,July 22, 2014. According to her, details of the suspected case were obtained from the health facility, and the suspect, a 40 year-old Liberian working for a West African organisation in Monrovia who arrived Lagos on a flight from Monrovia via Lome on Sunday, July 20, 2014 at 4p.m. had no contact with any case of EVD. Adeshina explained: "History taken revealed that he had no contact with any case of 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 EVD. However, on account of his working and living in an endemic region for EVD like Liberia; and the presentation of non-specific constitutional symptoms and signs of fever, malaise, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, etc associated with EVD, a high index of suspicion was raised." The aide explained further that based on the high index of suspicion raised, the patient was admitted and detained on suspicion for possible Ebola virus disease infection, stressing that blood sample collection and testing was initiated which include samples to the Virology Reference Laboratory, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba and World Health Organisation (WHO) Reference Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal which she stressed are actively in process. THE GUARDIAN