The Nig. Minister of Health, prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu,
said on Monday that 271 people suspected to be positive of Ebola virus
were under surveillance in Lagos and Port Harcourt as at Sunday.prof.
Chukwu made this known to Nigerians in Abuja during the
second emergency National Council on Health meeting on Ebola Virus
Disease (EVD) outbreak in the country He said 72 person were
under surveillance in Lagos and 199 in Port Harcourt.
No nobody is under surveillance in
Enugu for now, and no case of EVD in the State. As at Aug. 31, 278 contacts
in Lagos state completed the 21-day surveillance, and have been
discharged.
“In Enugu state, all the six identified contacts have completed the 21-day observation period and have been discharged,’’ the Minister added.
He also said that it was expected
that a few more contacts could develop the EVD, especially in River
state, before Nigeria could see the last case of the disease.
The Minister made it known that the strategies for
containing the disease in the country were focused on appropriate
information, education and communication and sustenance of the
surveillance systems.
Other strategies, as he said are .
(1) Reduction in harmful practices that promote the spread of the virus.
(2) Provision of adequate care for confirmed cases and active contact
tracing.
Onyebuchi said the National Centre for
Disease Control (NCDC) had gotten approval for the re-production of
copies of the protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for
management of Ebola cases.
He said that the approval gotten by (SOP) also included
protocols for submitting samples to the laboratories and also to burying
victims of the disease.
He disclosed that Ebola virus could be
diagnosed in five states in the country and Abuja listing the states
as
(i) Lagos, (ii) Oyo, (iii) Edo, (iv) Ogun and (v) Rivers.
Chukwu said that the ministry had
planned to procure additional mobile laboratories for Abakaliki, Port
Harcourt, Bauchi, Jos and Sokoto.
He added that the ministry had also
proposed a special fund to support affected private hospitals that
complied with the policy of seeing all patients and reported suspected
cases.
“Mr Atedo Peterside’s ANAP Foundation is
supporting affected private hospitals that complied with the policy of
seeing all patients and reported suspected cases of EVD with N100, 000
per bed space per day.
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