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Ebola: Eight Nigerian Patients To Receive Experimental Drugs …As FG Confirms Another Doctor Positive, Nurse Dead

Rivers State Deputy Governor, Engr. Tele Ikuru (centre) listens as Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Barr. Chuma Chinye, explains functions of some equipment for distribution to beneficiaries
In new developments just reported by the United States’ Wall Street Journal, eight Nigerians infected with Ebola will be given doses of the experimental treatment Nano Silver.
Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, announced that the experimental drug came from a Nigerian scientist, whose name has not yet been disclosed.
As an experimental treatment, there is much mystery surrounding Nano Silver.
Dr. Simon Agwale, a contagious disease expert, said Nano Silver had proven effective against viruses, parasites, and bacteria.
The news comes the same day a third person, a nurse who treated Liberian Patrick Sawyer, dies in Lagos of the virus.
The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, yesterday in Abuja said another Nigerian doctor has tested positive to the deadly Ebola disease.
The doctor’s case increases the number of people infected with the disease to 11, including the three confirmed deaths. One of the earlier confirmed infections was also a doctor.
“The total number of confirmed cases is 11, out of this 11, three are dead. The three that are dead are: the index case, a Liberian-American; a Nigerian nurse who was among those that managed the index case; and a Nigerian who was serving as a protocol officer with the ECOWAS,” Chukwu said.
However, few minutes after the minister’s briefing, it was learnt that another nurse that treated the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, died yesterday morning at the Lagos hospital where those being quarantined are kept.
Chukwu also said that more than half of the eight people quarantined are doing well and showing signs of recovery.
Altogether, the minister also said that 169 people are still under surveillance: 163 in Lagos and 6 in Enugu.
The 169 is a downslide from 198 previously under surveillance, indicating some of those under surveillance, including 15 in Enugu, have been discharged.
Those under surveillance in Enugu are those believed to have had contact with a nurse who escaped quarantine in Lagos and travelled to Enugu to meet her husband.
Chukwu said the nurse and her husband were moved in a special ambulance to the Lagos treatment centre.
He also said that an experimental drug, NanoSilver, provided by a Nigerian scientist, was expected to have reached the treatment centre yesterday.
He said all protocol and guidelines would be followed before the drug is administered on the patients.
He noted that this will go on while the Federal Government makes attempt to buy into ZMapp produced by a biotechnology firm, Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., in San Diego, United States.
The minister said the drug would also be vetted by the technical committee group before administration.
However, another nurse, Justina Obi Echelonu, who attended to late Liberian Patrick Sawyer while he was ill at the First Consultant hospital in Lagos, has died.
The 25-year old Justina died yesterday morning in a quarantine facility in Lagos.
Echelonu, one of those who had primary contacts with Patrick Sawyer at a Lagos Hospital where he received treatment after he was rushed from the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos where he collapsed, was very vocal in the campaign for the release of the ZMapp experimental drug to Nigerian Ebola disease patients.
She was previously working at Otunba Tunwase National Peadiatric Centre, Ijebu Ode in Ogun State before relocating to Lagos to work at First Consultant Hospital, Obalande months ago.
Her relatives confirmed the news.
Also confirming the news of her death, Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji regretted the demise of the nurse, and commended her for her selfless service to the nation. In a statement issued on Thursday afternoon, the governor prayed for the repose of the dead.
He said: “My heart bleeds as I write this. On behalf my family, the government and the good people of Abia State, I commiserate with family, friends and colleagues of our dear lady nurse, Justina Echelonu, who died following the contact she had with the Liberian American, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, in the course of discharging her duty as a nurse. I pray God to give them the fortitude to bear this tragic and irreparable loss. Rest in Peace Ms Justina Echelonu.”
Similarly, Minister of Health, Professor Chukwu Onyebuchi, said at a press briefing in Abuja yesterday that 15 out of the 21 people quarantined and put under surveillance over Ebola have been cleared.
He said, “15 of the quarantined people in Lagos have been cleared, while the remaining six are still under surveillance.
“As of now, we have 11 confirmed cases in Nigeria, out of which three have died. More than half of the remaining eight are responding well to treatment.”
Nonetheless, Nigerian women under the auspices of the Association of Market Women and Men in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), yesterday, insisted that apology tendered by the Liberian authorities over the importation of Ebola virus into Nigeria by Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer, was not enough.
They said the Liberia government had more explanations to give to Nigeria and Nigerians over permission given to the late Sawyer, having got the knowledge of his health status as carrier of Ebola virus.
The Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, on CNN news had said that Mr Sawyer was indisciplined and disrespectful for failing to heed medical advice not to travel.
Already, people through the social network are raising questions, challenging the competence of Liberia’s Deputy Finance Minister, Sebastian Omar, who cleared late Sawyer to travel to Nigeria for ECOWAS conference.
The President, Association of Market Women and Men, Chief Mrs Felicia Sani while speaking during a National Workshop on Security Awareness and Sensitization Campaign on Ebola Virus for Market Women in FCT organized by the National Orientation Agency (NOA), in Abuja, said although Liberia government had apologized, it was not enough for the enormity of loss their act had caused the country.
“Liberian Ambassador to Nigeria has apologised, but he has more explanations to give to Nigeria and her citizens,” she insisted.
Meanwhile, The World Health Organization said this week that 170 health care workers had been infected and at least 81 had died.
Sierra Leonean doctor Modupeh Cole became the latest medical practitioner to die of Ebola, a health ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
He contracted the disease after treating a patient who later proved to have the virus and died. The country’s leading Ebola doctor, Shek Umar Khan, also died last month.
Eight Chinese health workers are in quarantine in Sierra Leone because they may have contracted Ebola, according to the spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Freetown, Xu Zhou.
The seven doctors and one nurse treated patients at two Chinese-run hospitals in Freetown who later died from Ebola. One of the doctors has emerged from quarantine after a 21-day observation period, Zhou told Reuters.
Despite the stir caused by ZMapp, preventive public health measures will be crucial to containing the outbreak, according to the U.N. health agency. As a result, West African and other governments, including some which have seen no cases of the virus, have taken measures intended to prevent the spread of the disease.
Guinea-Bissau has decided to close its frontier with eastern neighbour Guinea, Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira told a news conference. Germany on Wednesday urged its nationals to leave Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, though the request did not apply to medical workers or German diplomatic staff, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
The outbreak has brought fresh attention to efforts to find a cure. Scientists in the United States studying Ebola say they have found how it blocks and disables the body’s ability to battle infections in a discovery that should help the search for potential cures and vaccines.
The scientists found that Ebola carries a protein called VP24 that interferes with a molecule called interferon, which is vital to the immune response.
“One of the key reasons that Ebola virus is so deadly is because it disrupts the body’s immune response to the infection,” said Chris Basler of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, who worked on the study.
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I’m Committed To Community Dev – Ajinwo
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RSG Tasks Rural Dwellers On RAAMP …As Sensitization Team Visits Akulga, Degema, Three Others

Rivers State Head of Service, Dr (Mrs) Inyingi Brown, has called on rural communities in the State to embrace the Rural Access and Agricultural marketing project (RAAMP) with a view to improving their living conditions.
This follows the ongoing sensitization campaign by the State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) visits to Degema, Abonnema, Afam headquarters of Degema, Akuku Toru and Oyigbo Etche and Omuma local government areas respectively.
Dr Brown who was represented by the Deputy Director, Special Duties in her office, Mrs Dein Akpanah, said RAAMP was initiated by the Federal Government and World Bank to economically empower rural dwellers.s
She said the World Bank understands the plights of rural farmers and traders in the State, and therefore came up with the programme to address them.
According to her, RAAMP will improve the conditions of farmers, traders and fishermen, and therefore, behoves on every rural communities in the State to embrace the programme.
The Head of Service also said the programme would support the youths to be gainfully employed while bridges and roads will be built to link farms and fishing settlements.
Also speaking, the State project coordinator, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the programme has the potential of creating millionaires among farmers and fishermen in the State.
Kpakol who was represented by Engr. Sam Tombari, said RAAMP would help farmers and fishermen to preserve their produce.
According to him, the project will build cold rooms and Silos for preservation of crops and fishes while access roads will also be created to link farmers and fishermen to the market.
He, however, warned them against any act that will lead to the suspension of the projects by the World Bank.
Kpakol particularly warned against acts such as kidnapping, marching ground, gender based violence and child labour, adding that such acts if they occur may lead to the cancellation of the project by the World Bank.
During the visit to Oyigbo local government area, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the team was there to let them know how they will benefit from the Raamp.
The coordinator who was personally at Oyigbo said the World Bank introduced the project to check food insecurity in the State.
He said already 19 states in Nigeria are already benefitting from the project and called on them to embrace the project.
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the three local government areas have commended the World Bank for including their areas in the project.
They, however, complained over the incessant attacks by pirates on their waterways.
At Degema, King Agolia of Ke kingdom said land was a major problem in the kingdom.
King Agolia represented by High Chief Alpheus Damiebi said many indigenes of the kingdom are willing to go into farming but are handicapped by lack of land.
Also at Degema, the representative of the Omu Onyam Ekeim of Usokun Degema kingdom, Osoabo Isaac, said Degema has embraced the programme but needed more information on the implementation of the programme.
Similarly, while High Chief Precious Abadi advised that the project should not be narrowed to only crop farming, a community women leader, Mrs Orikinge Eremabo Otto, called for the construction of cold rooms in all fishing settlements in the area.
At Abonnema, Mr Diamond Kio linked the problem of the area to incessant piracy along waterways.
He also expressed fears over the possibility of the project being hijacked by politicians.
Also at Abonnema, a stakeholder, Ikiriko Kelvin, called on the World Bank to design an agricultural project that will suit the riverine environment, while at Oyigbo, HRH Eze Boniface Akawo expressed satisfaction with the project.
John Bibor
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Senate Replaces Natasha As Committee Chairman

The political mudslinging between the Senate leadership and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan continued yesterday as the Senate named Senator Aniekan Bassey as the new Chairman of the Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the appointment during yesterday’s plenary, confirming Bassey’s replacement of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is currently on suspension.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was reassigned to the Diaspora and NGOs Committee in February after she was removed as Chair of the Senate Committee on Local Content during a minor reshuffle.
Bassey is the senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District.
Although no reason was given for her removal yesterday, the change is believed to be connected to her unresolved suspension.
In May, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court ordered her reinstatement and directed her to tender an apology to the Senate.
However, the Senate has insisted it has not received a certified true copy of the court judgment.
Akpoti-Uduaghan who represents Kogi Central, has yet to resume her legislative duties despite a recent court ruling that voided her suspension.
In a televised interview on Tuesday, Akpoti-Uduaghan said she was awaiting the Certified True Copy of the judgment before officially returning to plenary, citing legal advice and respect for institutional process.
Although the Federal High Court described her suspension as “excessive and unconstitutional”, a legal opinion dated July 5 and attributed to the Senate’s counsel, Paul Daudu (SAN), argued that the ruling lacked any binding directive to enforce her reinstatement.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, one of only three female senators in the current assembly, said the continued delay in allowing her return was not only a denial of her mandate but also a blow to democratic representation.
“By keeping me out of the chambers, the Senate is not just silencing Kogi Central, it’s denying Nigerian women and children representation. We are only three female senators now, down from eight,” she said.
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