The World Health Organisation (WHO) has commended the Rivers State Government for showing enough commitment to curb the menace of Ebola virus spread.
WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Mr Rui Vaz gave the commendation when he visited Governor Chibuike Amaechi yesterday in Government House, Port Harcourt.
Vaz said, “We have a very strong leadership and ownership from the government of Rivers State and everything is going to be done through His Excellency the governor.”
The WHO country director assured of plans by the body to provide support to the state government to boost the fight on Ebola.
He stressed that the body was ready to assist in logistics, equipment, reagents and medicines and support for media, especially in training people to identify the key issues in communities.
Vaz also gave hope on finding a final cure to the disease saying the trial drug, Zmapp is still at clinical stages, “there is an overall discussion and effort because this is not only Nigeria’s for all countries. They are looking for threats and I think it’s ongoing because they are looking at the safety of the medicines which is on clinical trial.”
Also, Governor Amaechi has disclosed that the state has released over N300million to fight Ebola disease.
Amaechi emphasized that the state government was poised to curb the menace with all available resources, “what is going on is not a joke, so whatever thing that we need to do we would do.
“If it means borrowing money in order to be able to contain it we would do,” Amaechi maintained.
He, therefore, counselled politicians to avoid playing politics with the scourge, assuring that his responsibility as the governor is to protect lives and property, “so, it’s not time to blame anybody.”
The governor also commended WHO for its assistance and promised that the government was ready to provide fund to ease its operations.
In the same vein, the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed commitment to assist the Rivers state Government in their effort to stamp-out Ebola in the state.
Country Representative of WHO, Rui Vaz stated this during a courtesy visit to the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Tamunoiyoriari Sampson Parker in his office in Port Harcourt.
Vaz, who commended the Rivers State Government for its efforts so far, disclosed that the World Health Organization will provide, among other things, technical and logistic support.
He also assured the people of the state that Ebola outbreak can be contained, stressing that the most important aspect of combating the outbreak is surveillance and case management.
The country representative further made a passionate appeal to the media on the management of information with regard to the Ebola outbreak.
Vaz said the media has the right platform to educate or discourage the people, stating that it behoves on the media to give the right information and not to panic the people.
Parker had earlier thanked Rui Vaz for the visit, and commended the WHO and other partners for their support and encouragements in the quest to conquer the Ebola Virus Disease.
However, Rivers State Health Commissioner, Dr. Tamunoiyoriari Sampson Parker has announced that two out of the three quarantined Ebola suspects have tested negative to the virus and has been released to go home, while the third person, an elderly woman who was admitted in the same hospital with the late Dr. Enemuo, tested positive and is being treated at the treatment centre in Eduoha.
The commissioner stated this in a media parley with health correspondents in Port Harcourt.
He said Miss Chinyere, the younger sister of the late doctor who escaped to Abia State following the report that her elder sister has been quarantined, has been found and is now placed under observation at the isolation centre after showing signs of the virus.
He said the remains of the late doctor, along with other corpses at the morgue, will be interred this week in Port Harcourt in line with WHO protocol, under the supervision of health officials.
This, according to him, is to prevent relatives of the deceased from danger, and reiterated that stigmatization of people under quarantine negates stake holders efforts to end the Ebola scourge.
However, following the confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Rivers State, the state government has established screening points at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa.
The testing points, which were set up by the Ministry of Health in conjunction with representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and facilitated by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) are meant to undertake primary and secondary tests on passengers.
Addressing airline managers in her office yesterday, the South South and South East Regional General Manager, Mrs Ebele Okoye, urged the airline operators to ensure that their passengers comply with the testing procedures.
She directed the airline operators to issue the forms provided them to all intending passengers on purchase of tickets as anyone who fails to comply would be prevented from boarding the aircraft.
Mrs Okoye explained that isolation centre has been provided at the airport where further testing would be carried out on anyone suspected from the primary or secondary tests, nothing that the test is for those leaving and those entering the state.
The regional manager also disclosed that the management of FAAN had embarked on enlightenment campaign when Ebola was noticed in the country to sensitise airport users on personal hygiene to check the spread of the disease.
She, therefore, advised intending passengers to arrive the airport about three hours before departure time to give them ample opportunity to undertake the tests.
It would be recalled that the Chairman, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Rivers State, Comrade Chika Onuegbu, had alleged that the airport management had not taken proactive steps to check the spread of the dreaded disease in the state.
Onuegbu said that if measures were taken, the ECOWAS staff who visited Port Harcourt, would have been detected and the state would have been saved from the agony and pressure of  curtailing the spread of the disease that has yet no confirmed cure.
Similarly, the death of a patient, who is suspected to have Ebola, has caused panic among patients and doctors at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi- Araba, Lagos State.
A reliable source, who confirmed this development to our correspondent in Lagos yesterday, said the patient was brought in by members of the health authorities at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, to the hospital on Monday.
According to the doctor who was on duty when the patient was admitted into the Accident and Emergency Unit, the patient was vomiting blood and stooling, symptoms  which are similar to that of an  Ebola patient, before he died in the early hours of Tuesday at the Spill-Over ward of the hospital.
He said, “They rushed him to the Accident and Emergency Unit, and since he was vomiting and purging and he also had high fever, we quickly took his temperature, it was very high. We were all scared to take his blood samples because we were not wearing any Personal Protective Equipment.
“We had to take him out of the emergency ward to the other spill-over ward to avoid any form of contamination. We also reported to the Lagos State Government so that they can take him to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Yaba for proper treatment. But he had started vomiting blood by this (Tuesday) morning , and few hours after he died.”
The doctor said that the body has being transferred to the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, for testing and confirmation of the cause of death.
The source said, “Like I said, we could not take any blood sample when he was alive because we were not wearing PPE, and we could not manage him effectively because of the severity of the symptoms we saw and considering the fact that he was coming from the airport. He could have been coming from an Ebola-affected country.
“They will need to establish the cause of death, so as to be able to know whether to quarantine those that he had contact with from the airport to the hospital. LUTH does not have the facilities to handle any suspected case of Ebola, government should know that, so they don’t keep bringing suspected cases here. All suspected cases should be taken to IDH.”
When contacted, the LUTH Chief Medical Director, Prof. Akin Oshibogun, said the death of the patient is still being investigated.
Oshibogun said, “We have been able to establish that this patient has no history of Ebola or any contact with a person that had Ebola. We are only trying to investigate the patient. If there is any new thing, we will let you know. As long as we are in the hospital, from time to time, we will always have high index suspicion and most times these patients turn out to be negative.
“There is a difference between suspected or confirmed cases . We are only investigating the case to protect our people. We have had that situation two times in the hospital now. If we have a case we will announce it.
“In the case of this patient, for the fact that a patient has high index suspicion does not make the patient an Ebola patient. When you create panic many nurses may decide to abandon the patients,” he said.
Also, a 19- year old student of Law at the Ahmadu Bello University has been diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus in Kaduna.
The Public Relations Officer, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Bilyaminu Umar, while confirming the case when contacted via phone said the student was diagnosed at ABUTH, Shika, Zaria.
“Yes, there was a case of a suspected Ebola patient. He is with the Faculty of Law, ABU, Zaria and will be placed on isolation.
“I am out of town, but will confirm details on my return from a trip,” he said.
However, as at the time of going to press yesterday, authorities of the state Ministry of Health were yet to confirm the outbreak in the state.
In another development, The human trail of an experimental Ebola vaccine will begin this week according to the National Institutes of Health, United States of America.
In a statement yesterday, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has given the researchers at the institute the approval to begin the human safety trial.
The experimental vaccine, developed by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and the NIAID, will first be given to three healthy human volunteers to see if they suffer any adverse effects.
If deemed safe, it will then be given to another small group of volunteers, aged 18 to 50, to see if it produces a strong immune response to the virus. All will be monitored closely for side effects.
The vaccine will be administered to volunteers by an injection in the deltoid muscle of their arm, first in a lower dose, then later in a higher dose after the safety of the vaccine has been determined.
Some of the preclinical studies that are normally done on these types of vaccines were waived by the FDA during the expedited review, Fauci said, so “we want to take extra special care that we go slowly with the dosing.”
The vaccine did extremely well in earlier trials with chimpanzees, Fauci told newsmen yesterday.
He noted that the method being used to prompt an immune response to Ebola cannot cause a healthy individual to become infected with the virus.
Still, he said, “I have been fooled enough in my many years of experience. You really can’t predict what you will see (in humans).”
According to the NIH, the vaccine will also be tested on healthy volunteers in the United Kingdom, Gambia and Mali, once details are finalised with health officials in those country.

Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi (with mic) discussing with Country Representative/Director, World Health Organization (WHO), Mr Rui Vaz on their joint efforts to fight the spread of Ebola virus in Rivers State, yesterday in Port Harcourt.

Kevin Nengia