The Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, has said that there is no active case of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country, as the last patient, the wife of the Rivers is doctor, the late Dr. Iyke Samuel Enemuo, has been treated and discharged.
This is just as he declared that the September 22 resumption date for public and private schools across the country will remain unchanged.
Briefing State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja yesterday, the minister said his counterpart in the education ministry, after a meeting with the Commissioners for Education from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had agreed on the date.
“In taking that decision, they relied on information that was given by the Federal Ministry of Health to the effect that there is actually no reason, with the expert information we have at hand, why schools cannot resume earlier than the original date of October 13. So I think people should just allow us to do the work we have been doing very professionally.
“It was based on the advice given by the Ministry of Health that the Minister of Education took the original decision that resumption was going to be in October and nobody quarrelled with the minister.
“But now the minister, based on expert advice, has come back to say well, if you are telling us it is okay, then we don't have any reason to stop the resumption of schools. And everybody is now quarrelling.
“However, I think we should allow the authorities to do their jobs. It is not an ordinary matter to be discussed the way we want to discuss it.
“If you have any evidence why we need to review the resumption date, supply such evidence to the Minister of Health. We will look at it, because we may never know, you may have a cogent reason.
“But if it is something whereby people just wake up and begin to make comments for the sake of it, then they would have to be extremely careful,” he said.
Chukwu explained that last Saturday's match between Nigeria and Congo was allowed to go on because every fan in Calabar, every player and everybody, even the governor and his wife, were screened.
He stressed: “We are dead serious, we are not perfect, but I know we are trying to encourage everybody in Nigeria to collaborate. We don’t need to shut out the world; we don’t need to tell anybody should not come to work in Nigeria. There is absolutely no reason for that.”
Providing clarification, the minister said: “First, unlike other countries, there is no community transmission of the disease in Nigeria; not one yet. But we have taken precautions.
“So there is no scientific basis for schools’ resumption to be postponed. There is no community transmission of the disease in Nigeria. That is what separates Nigeria from other countries. It is what I call irrational fear and we don’t need to be irrational about this.”
On the position of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) couselling against the reopening of schools on September 22, Chukwu responded: “You have asked about NMA, the only information I had from NMA was someone informing me that he had been appointed to head a committee being set up by the NMA on EVD. And I replied that person saying we welcome that as a government and as the Federal Ministry of Health.
“We look forward to collaborating with them. Now, collaboration doesn't mean going to the media. Collaboration means if they have information they should give it to the Federal Ministry of Health or the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
“However, I have not received any such information from NMA, so if you are telling me what is in the media, I would investigate. I will probably call them to let me know the basis of what they are saying through the media.
“The most important thing is for us to work together, but we have to be rational in whatever we are doing so that we don’t cause panic. Panic is not welcome in this business, otherwise we will be in trouble.”
Schools to Get Thermo-scanners
Similarly, the Federal Ministry of Education said adequate measures had been put in place to guard against the spread of the Ebola virus in schools ahead of the September 22 resumption date.
The Special Adviser, Media, to the Minister of Education, Mr. Nnamdi Olebara, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday.
According to him, the ministry was conscious of the danger of allowing one infected student to mix with other students, adding: “Commissioners for Information have been directed to ensure that there should be desk information officers in the states to communicate with the Federal Ministry of Education on Ebola.
“Because once one student contacts it, it will surely spread. There should be good toilets and water facilities in primary and secondary schools such that school children can wash their hands using running taps.
“Even if there is no borehole there, general purpose tanks could be provided. The ministry has also directed on the training of two members of staff of each school on ways to handle Ebola.
“There should be a network to train more people in the education sector in alliance the health sector, so the health ministries in the various states will partner schools to ensure awareness.”
He said every state had also been directed to provide schools with thermometers to check the temperature of students before allowing them into schools.
The special adviser said some schools had already procured thermometers while others were expected to get the instruments before September 22 resumption date.
On schools located in rural areas, Olebara said such schools were covered by the arrangements.
According to him, such schools would also have two training officers who would link up with the desk officer at the state level and would be monitored.
Olebara said the ministry would re-introduce the school health programme to ensure proper hygiene in schools even after the Ebola menace has been eradicated.
“The ministry is insisting on reviewing school health programmes/hygiene programmes which should entail having first aid boxes and hygiene rules which will go beyond Ebola.
“The old process of checking students' fingernails, hair, teeth and neatness, among others, will be brought back to ensure proper hygiene in schools,” he said.
He said the ministry would also establish Ebola Rapid Response teams in the states before the reopening of schools, and appealed for the support of all stakeholders in enforcing the measures.
No Ebola Case in Nigeria
Also giving an update on the Ebola outbreak in the country, the health minister at a separate briefing said there was no case of the disease in the country.
Chukwu said: “As of today, the total number of confirmed cases of EVD in Nigeria stands at nineteen (19), fifteen (15) in Lagos, four (4) in Port Harcourt.
“The total number of deaths from EVD in Nigeria stands at seven (7). Five (5) of them died in Lagos, one (1) in a private hospital, the index case Mr. Sawyer, and the other four (4) in the isolation ward in Lagos State.”
The minister explained that two of the seven died in Port Harcourt – the medical doctor who died in a private hospital and the contact, a patient in the hospital at the time the doctor was also on admission, who died in the isolation ward in Rivers State.
He further stated: “The total number of patients who have been successfully managed and discharged is now ten (10). The latest are the sister of the Port Harcourt doctor who was discharged from the isolation ward in Rivers State on 7th September 2014, and the wife of the same doctor who was discharged from the isolation ward in Lagos State on Tuesday, September 9, 2014.”
He said the 10 patients successfully managed and discharged are among the 12 survivors of EVD in Nigeria.
“At present, there is no single current case of confirmed EVD in Nigeria. However, a suspected case of EVD from Ile-Ife, a university student who had contact with the late Port Harcourt doctor at a naming ceremony in Port Harcourt has been quarantined and is being investigated,” he added.
On the contacts currently under surveillance, Chukwu revealed that Lagos now has 16 contacts under surveillance, stating: “A total of 350 contacts who were previously under surveillance have been discharged having completed 21 days of observation.
“Port Harcourt has 490 contacts under surveillance. It is a mixed group consisting of tertiary and quaternary contacts of Mr. Sawyer’s. Sixteen (16) contacts have already been discharged from surveillance in Port Harcourt having completed 21 days of observation.”
No Patient at Rivers Treatment Centre
Corroborating Chukwu’s statement, the Rivers State Government also declared yesterday that there were no positive cases of Ebola in the state, as the last suspect, an 18-month child had been discharged from the treatment centre.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sampson Parker, however said 510 contacts were still under surveillance.
The commissioner said: “In Rivers State, we don’t have any positive case of the Ebola Virus Disease, but we have about 510 contacts now; most of them are cooperating with us. The number of contacts is not the issue, but to say that we are in control."
He however said the state would remain vigilant as some desperate people in Liberia and Sierra Leone could smuggle themselves into Nigeria in search of treatment.
He charged the international community and West African states to individually and jointly support Liberia and Sierra Leone so that their citizens who are getting increasingly frustrated over the wanton spread of Ebola in their countries would not seek treatment in Nigeria and other West African countries.
Gates Foundation Commits $50m for Ebola
However, in a bid to check the spread of the disease in the sub-region, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation yesterday announced that it would commit $50 million to support the scale up of emergency efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and interrupt transmission of the virus.
In this regard, the foundation will immediately release flexible funds to United Nations' agencies and international organisations involved in the response to enable them and national governments to purchase badly needed supplies and scale up emergency operations in the affected countries.
In addition, the foundation will work with public and private sector partners to accelerate the development of therapies, vaccines, and diagnostics that could be effective in treating patients and preventing further transmission of the disease.
“We are working urgently with our partners to identify the most effective ways to help them save lives now and stop transmission of this deadly disease,” said Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Gates Foundation.
“We also want to accelerate the development of treatments, vaccines and diagnostics that can help end this epidemic and prevent future outbreaks.”
To date, the Gates Foundation has committed more than $10 million to fight the Ebola outbreak, including $5 million to WHO for emergency operations and R&D assessments and $5 million to the US Fund for UNICEF to support efforts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to purchase essential medical supplies, coordinate response activities, and provide at-risk communities with life-saving health information.
An additional $2 million will also be committed immediately to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support incident management, treatment, and health care system strengthening.
In August, Nigeria responded to the current crisis by opening an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in Lagos, with support from the foundation and the Dangote Foundation.
Leveraging expertise and lessons from the national polio programme, the EOC has been at the centre of an aggressive push by the federal and state governments to contain the spread of the virus, and there is cautious optimism that this prompt action may have helped avert a broader outbreak. As additional grants are made, the foundation will provide further details on its funding commitments to on-the-ground operations and to research and development for Ebola drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics
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