Four more patients undergoing treatment for the deadly Ebola Virus Disease have been discharged from the Ebola Emergency Treatment Centre in Lagos.
The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, in a statement on Monday, said the discharged patients have now being confirmed to be Ebola free.
Though the identities of the survivors were not disclosed, Chukwu said three of the patients – two male doctors and a female nurse – participated in the treatment of the index case, Patrick Sawyer, while the fourth patient was a female patient at the First Consultant Hospital at the time Sawyer was on admission.
Sawyer, a Liberian-American, escaped surveillance in Monrovia, and came into Nigeria on July 20 with the deadly Ebola virus but later died at First Consultant on July 24.
Following the importation of the disease, 11 people have tested positive to the disease out of which four people have died, including the index case, thus brings the number of discharged persons to five.
One of the patients, who tested positive to the virus was discharged on Saturday, after she was declared Ebola free.
Chukwu had earlier indicated that more than half of the patients being treated were responding to treatment, stating that all the persons under surveillance were secondary contacts.
“All the patients under treatment have now moved to the new 40-bed capacity isolated ward provided by the Lagos State Government. Additional equipment has also been made available to the new isolating ward by the Federal Government,” the minister said.
The minister also said that the Nano silver drug which was made available to the Emergency Operations Centre in Lagos on Aug. 14, did not meet basic research requirements.
“The experimental drug, Nanosilver, did not meet the requirements of the National Health Research Ethics Code. Accordingly, approval was withheld by the National Health Research Ethics Committee. Other candidate drugs are being evaluated by the Treatment Research Group of Ebola Disease.
“As soon as any of the experimental drugs is cleared by the National Health Research Ethics Committee and is made available, we shall include it in the treatment regimen subject to the informed consent of the patient.’’
The minister also debunked speculations that there are Ebola cases in Imo, Abia and Cross River States, adding that the case of the disease in Kwara was still under investigation.
“The mother of the child in Kwara tested negative and we are still investigating the child. Also, the corpse in Anambra was embalmed and we are awaiting result of the test.
“All the mortuary attendants who had contact with the corpse tested negative, so there is no need to panic’’, he said.
On the suspension of resident doctors’ training by the Federal Government, Chukwu said there had been problems with the training which also informed the ongoing doctors’ strike.
According to the minister, the suspension is with all federal government hospitals, adding that states’ teaching hospitals were not affected.
“The government suspended the training to allow for critical investigation and come up with better ways to improve the training.”
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