Baby suspected to have virus

The Kwara State government announced yesterday that a suspected case of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) had been reported in the state.The Chairman of EVD Committee, Prof Sunday Opabola, told reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, about the suspected case. But he allayed the fear of an outbreak in the state.

He said the suspected case was discovered on Wednesday in a seven-month-old baby brought to the state from Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The professor of medicine, who doubles as the Special Assistant to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on Public Health, said there was no confirmed case of the disease in the state, as being speculated.

The governor’s aide explained that the “infected” baby was found with some symptoms that are not exclusive to Ebola disease.

He said the symptoms might be those of Lassa fever, cholera, malaria and some other diseases.

Opabola said: “We need to do this because of all the rumours and talks going on in town and on the social media.

“Kwara State has always had a strong surveillance system for infectious diseases. But when that thing (Ebola) came up, the Ministry of Health set up a committee to put in place a standard procedure for outbreak, control and prevention.

“But due to the seriousness of the situation, the governor set up a committee for the control of the disease, which was inaugurated yesterday (Wednesday). In fact, we have not had an inaugural meeting, which was supposed to be on August 10. But this is more important.

“The committee was given specific terms of reference.

But by 9am yesterday (Wednesday), I was called to the Ministry of Health that a proprietor of a private hospital, who is a paediatrician, reported a suspected case on admission in his hospital.

“The suspected patient is a seven-month old child, who was brought to Ilorin with the mother. She came out with suspicion of malaria and was admitted at Surulere Clinic. They started treating the baby for malaria; that is, on August 10. After managing him for two days, there was no improvement. He was referred to a paediatrician.

“After clinical assessment, he apparently exhibited some symptoms that looked like Ebola. The symptoms are fever, diarrhoea and vomiting. They were being taken care of before in other hospitals. But he now saw that the vomiting consisted of blood. That was where he made a report.

“Now, if it were not in this situation we have, I am sure he couldn’t have made any report, because some other diseases could have presented the same symptoms. Even malaria in children would present something like that. Other viral infections, viral haemorrhagic diseases would present like this; same for Lassa fever and so on. Even cholera can present like this. But because in this situation, we have been on the alert and we don’t want to take chances.

“So, he made a report and we went into action. The standard procedures were: one, we removed the patient from the hospital to our already prepared isolation centre at Sobi Specialist Hospital. Two, we continued managing the patient there. Three, we took the blood sample of the patient and the mother for diagnosis of the virus. Currently, the samples are on their way to Lagos.

“One of the samples would be given to Prof Oyewale Tomori, who is the major viral expert in Nigeria at the Redeemers University (in Lagos). We are testing the second sample at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) today.

“As we await the test result, other measures are being put in place. These are: one, the governor has approved the purchase of a test machine, which has been ordered from Abuja. We expect it to arrive in Ilorin today. The machine would be stationed at the Kwara Diagnostic Centre. We post workers who are experienced at operating the machine there to help us do that.

“We have done this to allow easy and quick accessibility to testing and screening of suspected cases.

“Two, continuous surveillance is going on and we are doing contact tracing for each particular patient. We will continue the contact tracing as we await the test result.

“We have established three isolation and quarantine centres in each of the three senatorial districts – Sobi Specialist Hospital; General Hospitals at Omu Aran and Okuta, in Kwara North. They were chosen because of their closeness to the borders.

“The state government is also working with the Federal Ministry of Health.

“Based on standard procedure, the hospital involved has been decontaminated and shut down temporarily.

“Our advice to the public is not to panic. In public health, when there is an outbreak, people panic, and panic brings negative fear, in terms of control procedures. So, we should not panic.

“The Kwara State government is doing all it can to make sure we control and prevent the disease. We don’t have a case; we have a suspected case. The diagnosis is made in three ways: history taking, physical examination and laboratory investigation.

“Some diagnoses are made with history taking and clinical examination, but more diagnoses are made with history taking, clinical examination and laboratory investigation/medical imaging. In this case, diagnosis is made. Here is just a history of contact: have you had contact with somebody that has it? In this child’s case, we don’t have any history of contact. We just have a vague history that the person who took care of the girl in Ibadan actually travelled to Lagos and came back.

“So, there was no history of her contacting anybody. Also, there is no history to show that this person, who was taking care of the baby, has any symptom.

“You cannot transmit Ebola when you are still in the incubation period. You can only transmit Ebola when you become symptomatic. So, the woman who was taking care of her is not symptomatic. But we can’t take chances. So, the history is made. Two, the clinical examination shows some symptoms. That is where we are now. After that, we need to confirm.”