Ebola: 50 At High Risk In Rivers; Three In Isolation Centre …Diplomat May Face Charges For Fleeing To PH …No Screening Device At PH Airport …US Conducts Vaccine Trail In Nigeria,’Morrow …Five Scientists Studying Virus Trend Die

The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tamunoiyoriari Sampson Parker says the contact tracing team has identified 178 persons that had contact with the late Dr. Iyke Enemuo, who died of Ebola virus in Port Harcourt on August 22.
The commissioner stated this yesterday during his daily media briefing to keep the public abreast with efforts of stake holders to tackle the Ebola scourge in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
According to him, 50 out of 178 have high risk exposure, stating that three persons have been moved to the Isolation centre in Eduoha, while late Dr. Enemuo’s wife, who was earlier moved to Lagos is stable and responding to treatment.
Parker, who said that the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital Mortuary, Samstel Clinic, Mandate Hotel, Good Heart Hospital and Dr. Iyke Enemuo’s residence have all be decontaminated, also added that people should not shy away from these places because they are now safe as a result of the decontamination.
He frowned against stigmatization of people who have contracted the virus, saying that contracting the virus is not a death sentence.
“All the people who presented themselves early for treatment in Lagos have all survived”, the commissioner said.
Parker warned church leaders and other religious organizations to desist from turning their backyards to hospital wards where they lay hands on people for spiritual healing, insisting that all febrile illnesses must be reported for investigation and prompt intervention.
He said the burial of all corpses which were deposited at the UPTH morgue at the same period with the late Enemuo must be carried out under the supervision of the state Ministry of Health, while movement of corpses around the state must be done with clearance from the ministry.
However, the Nigerian diplomat attached to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Olu Ibukun Koye, who escaped from quarantine in Lagos after testing positive to Ebola virus and travelled to Port Harcourt for treatment, an action that resulted in the death of Dr Iyke Enemuo, may face manslaughter charges.
This is coming on the heels of reports that the number of persons under surveillance in the state for Ebola Virus Disease has increased from 100 to 178.
According to sources, the issue of Koye (a primary contact of the index case, late Liberian Partick Sawyer), who defied instruction and left Lagos after being placed in the isolation unit, was discussed at the Federal Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday and that the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation was directed to look into the Nigerian laws and see how he could be sanctioned for his action that resulted in the death of Enemuo.
Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has expressed shock over the inability of the authorities of the Port Harcourt International Airport to put measures in place to screen passengers entering the airport four days after the confirmation of the spread of Ebola virus in Rivers State.
The state Chairman of TUC, Mr. Chika Onuegbu, said in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday that not even temperature check device had been placed anywhere within the airport.
It will be recalled that the dreaded disease has claimed the life of one Dr. Iyke Enemuo, even as over 178 persons have been kept under observation to ascertain if they have the disease.
Describing the development as callous and irresponsible, Onuegbu urged authorities of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to ensure that passenger entering and moving out of the Port Harcourt Airport were checked.
This, according to Onuegbu, will help in efforts towards containing the Ebola virus in the state.
“The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, Rivers State, is shocked that despite the confirmation of Ebola Virus Disease in Rivers State that the authorities of Port Harcourt International Airport have not put anything in place to check passengers entering and leaving the airport.
“Not even the temperature check device is in the airport. We view this as callous and irresponsible and immediately call on the authorities of FAAN, NCAA and all agencies in the Port Harcourt International Airport to immediately ensure that they check all passengers entering and leaving the airport,” Onuegbu stressed.
He pointed out that the TUC were of the view that the diplomat that imported the disease from Lagos might have been prevented from doing so if FAAN authorities at the airport had done what was expected of them.
The state TUC chairman, however, called on the ministers of health and aviation to ensure that such facilities at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos to detect the disease were also put in place in the Port Harcourt International Airport.
Reacting to the TUC statement, FAAN Regional Manager, Mr. Henry Anyanwu, said yesterday that the Ebola virus screening device would be ready within the next two days.
“Something is being done about the Ebola disease. The issue of checking the Ebola disease is a joint responsibility headed by the Federal Ministry of Health. They are the key agency at the airport.
“People in FAAN are just a backup. We have our medical team at the Port Harcourt Airport. I am sure that before the next two days or so, the necessary equipment will be put in place at the airport,” Anyanwu stated.
In another development, the United States health officials have said they are considering a trial test tomorrow of the recently launched Ebola vaccine in Nigeria, as they also prepare to test the vaccine in The Gambia and Mali in mid-September.
The US National Institutes of Health announced in a statement that it would launch the safety trial on the vaccine developed by the agency’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline.
The testing is expected to start tomorrow with 20 volunteers to see if the virus is safe for use on humans.
The statement said in part, “The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has initiated discussions with Ministry of Health officials in Nigeria about the prospects for conducting a Phase 1 safety study of the vaccine among healthy adults in that country. The pace of human safety testing for experimental Ebola vaccines has been expedited in response to the ongoing Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.”
Testing of the vaccine will be at NIH’s campus and involve a mixture that uses both the current Zaire strain and another strain, Sudan. In the second week of September, NIH and a British team will test that vaccine on 100 volunteers in the United Kingdom.
“Initial human testing of an investigational vaccine to prevent Ebola virus disease will begin next week by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
“The early-stage trial will begin initial human testing of a vaccine co-developed by NIAID and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and will evaluate the experimental vaccine’s safety and ability to generate an immune system response in healthy adults. Testing will take place at the NIH Clinical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland,” the NIH noted.
The study is the first of several Phase 1 clinical trials that will examine the investigational NIAID/GSK Ebola vaccine and an experimental Ebola vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
According to the statement, these trials are conducted in healthy adults who are not infected with Ebola virus to determine if the vaccine is safe and induces an adequate immune response.

Olu Ibukun Koye, the ECOWAS staff who brought Ebola to Port Harcourt, Rivers State.