There are fears in Rivers State, southern Nigeria, following government’s inability to track down 60 persons said to have had primary and secondary contacts with Dr. Iyke Samuel Enamuo, who died of Ebola disease recently, and his wife, who has contracted the disease.
Observers are worried about the poor management of information about the outbreak of the disease from the point where Dr. Enamuo started treating the ECOWAS official who checked into Mandate Hotels and Gardens, to Samstel Hospital on East-West road before he fell ill and was taken to Good Heart Hospital on Evo road along GRA Phase 2 where he died.
From Good Heart Hospital, Enamuo’s corpse was moved to Prime Hospital where they felt an expert opinion could be proferred but the corpse was rejected by the management of Prime Hospital because from their findings the doctor was clinically dead.
It was also learnt that attempt was made to deposit Enamuo’s corpse at the Military Hospital which was rejected because the management left a firm instruction that no outside corpse should be accepted and deposited in the mortuary.
The last resort was to head to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, UPTH, where the morgue attendants were not briefed about the medical history of the patient before he died.
The delay in the management of information concerning places the ECOWAS staff lodged in the city of Port Harcourt, the medical staff who had contact with the doctor, ECOWAS staff and the UPTH mortuary staff gave room for all those who had primary and secondary contacts with the deceased to escape out fear of stigmatization.
Dr Onyebuchi Chukwu, the Minister of Health, was the first to break the news of Ebola outbreak in Port Harcourt.
A few hours after, Dr. Sampson Parker, the state Commissioner for Health, announced the outbreak of the disease in the state.
Parker’s reluctance to mention the names of the hospitals and hotel the ECOWAS staff lodged because of stigmatization until the names started surfacing in the social media, further facilitated the escape of the 60 affected contacts.
They probably disappeared to escape from the Ebola rapid response committee.
Parker has assured that the fleeing people would be tracked down and tested for the disease and possibly.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi would be having an advocacy on the prevention of the disease with traditional rulers in the Government House, Port Harcourt, Monday.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon