‘Sick Patient in Calabar Did Not Die of Ebola’ – Ministry of Health

Yesterday, we brought you news of suspected Ebola outbreak in Calabar (read here). Nigerians can now heave a sigh of relief as the Federal Ministry of health has allayed fears of an outbreak of the deadly virus.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Friday, the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr Linus Awute, said:

“We have followed the recent rumours of Ebola to find that it is the case of a 21-year-old male student of UNICAL who was brought into the casualty ward of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital by the mother and other family members on October 7, 2015, at about 1am.

The patient was admitted with bleeding, diarrhoea, vomiting, skin rashes and mouth lesions. His temperature on admission was 37 degrees centigrade and his vital signs were stable. The parents said that the patient had never travelled outside Calabar. On the basis of the signs and symptoms, a tentative diagnosis of viral hemorrhagic fever, to rule out Lassa fever was made.

Some of his family members, especially the brother and sister had a history of chicken pox in the last one week, prior to his falling ill. The patient was treated with antipyretics and antibiotics during the course of illness and received intravenous fluids. Sadly, at exactly 8:15am, seven hours post-admission, the patient passed on.

The death created panic among the medical team that attended to him; 15 health workers and eight patients who had direct or indirect contact with the deceased were quarantined. Other hospital workers were provided with thermometers to monitor their temperature twice daily.

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Tests on the blood sample were run throughout the night and as of 8am (on Friday), results confirmed that the deceased tested negative for both the Ebola Virus and Lassa Fever Virus. Additional tests using next generation sequencing methods are currently being carried out at the Redeemers University African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Ede, Osun State, to confirm which virus must have caused the infection and death. The result of these tests is expected on Monday, October 12, 2015.

The Federal Ministry of Health hereby confirms that there is no Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria, and thus Nigeria remains Ebola-free.”

He however added that the medical personnel who handled the patient ‘will still remain under observation and surveillance,’ and advised members of the public to continue to observe good personal hygiene and ensure their environment is clean.