Following the death of forty year old Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian in Lagos last week, the Federal Government on Monday ordered six persons made up of Liberians and other West Africans from Ebola-afflicted countries currently attending an ECOWAS meeting in Calabar to return to Lagos for further examination and screening.
Sawyer, a Consultant with a UNICEF funded program, Water, Sanitation And Hygiene, WASH in Liberia died at the First Consultant Medical Center, Obalende in Lagos, on Thursday after being confirmed to have contacted the EVD before landing in Lagos.
Sawyer along with other colleagues were said to be on their way to Calabar to attend an ECOWAS meeting.
CrossRiverWatch checks in Lagos show that all the crew of the Asky aircraft that brought Mr. Sawyer and colleagues to Nigeria and all the personnel of the hospital where he died have been screened.
Thirty other passengers, mostly non-Nigerians, who flew in from Monrovia, made a stopover in Lome before coming to Nigeria have also been identified for screening.
Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, told press men that Sawyer was never in Calabar as been peddled, stressing that while in Lagos, “Mr. Sawyer was immediately handled to isolate him from the public. We have also ordered the recall of six other persons attending the meeting in Calabar to Lagos to be observed, screened and examined,” he said.
The Minister also called for calm assuring that he had been in talks with the World Health Organization headquarters in Switzerland, as well as the Regional Director and WHO Country Representative in Nigeria in an effort to control the crisis while authorities have also suspended the operations of Asky Airline which brought the Ebola infected passenger to the country.
He also pleaded with the media, mostly, private media organizations to, as a matter of urgency, assist government in creating more awareness about the disease.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram: @effiongeton
No comments:
Post a Comment