The deadly Ebola Virus Disease which has killed 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
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