Chairman, Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC),Ibiamu Davies Ikanya (left) and Hon Emeka Beke, during the defection of PDP members at APC Secretariate in Port Harcourt, yesterday

Lagos Sate Health Commissioner, Jide Idris has announced that the state now has eight suspected cases of Ebola. The infected all came into contact with Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian who died in the major city last month, becoming the country’s first casualty.
It will be recalled that the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, Monday, during the inauguration of the Treatment Research Group Committee on Ebola Virus Disease, disclosed: “When we met last week, I told you that we were still monitoring some of the healthcare workers and passengers who came in contact with the American-Liberian who brought in Ebola to Nigeria. There were others who attended to him; some have developed symptoms of Ebola.
As of today, we now have a case; this is the second case of Ebola virus in Nigeria. This is the doctor who attended to the Ebola patient in the Lagos hospital.”
Further, he said: “Three others are under watch; at the end of today (yesterday) we will know the outcome. Eight of those who had contact with Mr. Sawyer have been quarantined, while 70 of those who had contact with the patient are on surveillance.
“All of these persons are being quarantined in Lagos, where the Lagos State Government has provided isolation wards.”
Consequently, the Federal Government has in Abuja inaugurated a six-man Working Group to carry out research on the treatment of Ebola virus.
The Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, inaugurated the committee co-chaired by Prof. Karniyus Gamanie, Director-General, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRID), Abuja.
The other co-chair is the Director-General of Nigerian Institute for Medical Research, Prof Innocent Ujah.
Chukwu said there was no known cure for the Ebola infection nationwide at present, adding that there was “no scientific evidence’’ that eating `bitter kola’, could cure Ebola infection.
The minister was referring to media reports that suggested bitter kola could cure Ebola infection based on a research conducted by a Pharmacognosist and former Chairman of INEC, Prof. Maurice Iwu.
The minister, who acknowledged the internationally acclaimed research of Iwu, also named him as one of the members of the committee.
“We have taken note that Iwu’s research has not been concluded. We also feel that in addition to mass enlightenment, we should not neglect the issue of research on Ebola disease.” he said.
Chukwu said researches were going on across laboratories worldwide on vaccines for the treatment of the virus.
He gave the terms of reference of the committee to include: “conducting research into the treatment of the Ebola virus.
He said the committee should receive and verify claims relating to the treatment of the disease, including uncompleted researches carried out in 1999 in the U.S by Iwu and his team.
The team, he said, should collate and analyse related research findings worldwide, adding that the committee was free to collaborate with similar centres around the world in the discharge of its mandates.
He also said the committee was also expected to advice government on appropriate measures to curtail the spread of the virus.
Other members of the committee are the Project Coordinator for Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, the Director of Public Health, Ministry of Health and the Director of Health Planning, Research and Statistics.
The minister said the committee could recruit technical persons to assist it in its work.
In his response, Gamanie thanked the minister for the privilege to serve in the committee and pledged that the committee would do its best to discharge its duties.
However, with the spread of the dreaded Ebola virus assuming epidemic proportions in the West African sub-region, the World Bank Group on Tuesday announced that it would join the global effort to fight further spread of the disease.
With the latest death toll in West Africa now at about 887, the World Bank has pledged to mobilise as much as $200million (about N3.2billion) in emergency funding to help three countries in the region with the worse prevalence of the deadly scourge.
The Group in a statement in Abuja named the three countries to benefit from the funding support to include Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
The new financial pledge, which is coming on the first day of the ongoing US-Africa Summit in Washington D.C., would help pay for urgently needed medical supplies, salaries for medical staff, and other vital materials to stabilize the health system, while also helping communities cope with financial hardship caused by the epidemic.
The package would also help to build up the region’s disease surveillance and laboratory networks to guard against future epidemic outbreaks.
Besides, the funding would also help the three countries contain the spread of Ebola infections by assisting their communities cope with the economic impact of the health crisis, and improve public health systems throughout the West African sub-region.
The World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, who is a medical doctor experienced in the treatment of infectious diseases, said the new financing commitment was in response to a call from both the three African countries hardest-hit by Ebola scourge and the World Health Organization, WHO, for immediate assistance to contain the outbreak of the epidemic.
Mr. Kim said the Group would also step up social safety net assistance for affected communities and families and help to build public health systems in West Africa to generally strengthen the region’s disease control capacity.
The President said he would brief the Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors as soon as possible on the latest state of the epidemic and seek their approval for the new emergency package.
He expressed deep worry for the huge number of lives lost so far to the disease as well as several others at risk, pointing out that unless the concerted effort to stop the spread of the epidemic was sustained the people would be in danger.
“I have been monitoring its deadly impact around the clock and am deeply saddened at how it has ravaged health workers, families and communities, disrupted normal life, and has led to a breakdown of already weak health systems in the three countries,” the World Bank President said.
He emphasized the need for the international community to act fast to contain and stop this Ebola outbreak, expressing the belief that the new World Bank emergency funding would provide critically needed support for the response to stop the further transmission of Ebola virus within Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and prevent new infections in neighbouring countries that are at risk.
The World Bank President said the WHO leadership was vital to international and regional efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic in West Africa’s first-ever outbreak of Ebola virus disease, which has become the largest ever in the nearly four-decade history of this disease.
He said the Group would work in close coordination with the WHO and other development partners, such as the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
To facilitate effective coordination of the campaign, he said, the WHO has now set up an Ebola response centre in Conakry. Guinea.
“WHO welcomes this support from the World Bank, which comes at a time when concern about the Ebola virus disease is escalating,” its Director General, Margaret Chan, said in Geneva.
“The demands created by this unprecedented outbreak outstrip the capacity of affected countries in West Africa to respond. So funding to increase national response capacities is a fundamentally important way to slow transmission and prevent spread to other areas,” Mrs. Chan stated.
With the Ebola virus now directly and indirectly impacting economies in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and neighbouring countries, the World Bank said the new emergency response would also help countries and communities cope with financial hardship caused by the outbreak.
The World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Makhtar Diop, said the Group’s latest emergency response would also include social safety net measures to help families and communities trying to cope with financial loss as a result of the outbreak.
An initial World Bank-IMF assessment for Guinea projects a full percentage point fall in gross domestic product, GDP growth from 4.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
Agriculture has also been affected in all three countries as rural workers have fled farming areas in the affected zones. To date, there has been no measurable impact on the food supply.
Cross-border commerce has slowed considerably with land crossings closed to neighbouring countries and more recently cancellation of flights between member states of the ECOWAS region.
For instance, following the death last week of a victim, Patrick Sawyer, who was said to have visited Lagos from Liberia, Ghana has since closed its airspace to flights from Nigeria.
A similar action was being taken against Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, with noticeably fewer international flights to these countries.
The result has been lower revenues and financial inflows. Also, many projects involving expatriate workers or business travellers have been scaled down drastically.
The World Bank has warned that if the evacuation of skilled expatriate staff continues in the mining sector in natural resource rich countries, there would likely be a significant decline in production.
For instance, in Liberia, public schools have been shut-down as part of the government-declared state of emergency.
Meanwhile, an American woman infected with the dangerous Ebola virus has arrived at a US military base in Atlanta, Georgia, yesterday and is headed for treatment at a specially equipped hospital.
Nancy Writebol, 60, landed aboard a small medical evacuation plane, according to television images broadcast by US networks.
She is to be carried by ambulance to Emory University Hospital, where her colleague, missionary doctor Kent Brantly, is also receiving care.