ALERT: Lagos probes alleged case of Ebola virus, urges caution

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, has said the suspected case of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease in a Liberian man is being investigated.

Adeshina, at a press briefing by the state’s Ministry of Health in Lagos, stated that the patient was admitted on Tuesday at a private health facility in the state.

According to her, the 40-year-old patient, who works for a West African organisation in Monrovia, arrived in Lagos on a flight from Monrovia via Lome on Sunday, has had no contact with any infected person so far.

She stated that the patient’ s blood samples had been taken to the Virology Reference Laboratory at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, and World Health Organisation Reference Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal, for further testing.

Adeshina said, “History taken revealed that he had no contact with any case of the Ebola virus, did not visit any person with the virus in the hospital and neither did he partake in the burial of any person who died of it.

“However, on account of his working and living in an endemic region like Liberia, and the presentation of non-specific constitutional symptoms and signs of fever, malaise, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea associated with the disease, he had to be admitted for further testing. Presently, the patient’s condition is stable and he’s in recovery.”

The public health physician urged residents to stay calm and take appropriate measures to reduce their risk of contracting the deadly virus by washing their hands often with soap and water, avoiding close contact with people who were sick and ensuring that objects used by the sick were decontaminated and properly disposed.

The Ebola Virus Disease is a viral hemorrhagic fever. The initial symptoms of the viral disease can include sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain and sore throat, which can later progress to vomiting, diarrhoea and, in some cases, internal and external bleeding.

The outbreak of the disease has been recorded in some neighbouring West African countries like Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The virus is spread through humans, however, its hosts have been found to be fruit bats and infected exotic animals including chimpanzees, monkeys and other game meats who live with fruit bats.

The World Health Organisation has sent a warning to those living in high risk areas such as West Africa not to eat raw bush meat for now.