Ebola In Nigeria: Panic In OAU as female student
is quarantined,moved to Lagos
Fear gripped students,
parents and staff of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on Tuesday over a
report that a patient on admission at the OAU Health Centre was a suspected
Ebola Virus Disease victim.
Though the management of the
school initially denied the development but the Oyo State Commissioner for
Health, Dr. Temitope Ilori, said the sick student had confessed having contact
with the late Port Harcourt doctor, Iyke Enemuo, who died of the EVD after he
secretly treated an infected ECOWAS diplomat, Olu-Ibukun Koye, in a hotel in
the Rivers State capital.
The commissioner said the
female student had been put in the isolation ward.
Ilori said, “I
was told that a student of the OAU who had contact with the doctor who died of
the Ebola virus in Port Harcourt walked into the health centre when she was
sick.
“She was said to have told doctors at the health centre
that she had contact with the Port Harcourt doctor and was put under
surveillance but she said she tested negative that time.
“Now she returned to the OAU to continue with her
studies and was sick. She was said to have walked to the health centre and told
them everything about her contact with the doctor.
“Her blood sample has been taken for another test in
Lagos and we are awaiting the result. We pray she is not positive but she has
been isolated at the health centre.”
When one of our
correspondents visited the hospital on Tuesday, it was observed that health officials
were disinfecting the surroundings of the medical centre and more attention was
paid to places where patients sit before being attended to.
It was also learnt that top
officials of the hospital held an emergency meeting after testing the suspected
patient, who was said to have been on admission in the hospital since Monday.
Before the confirmation by
the commissioner, the Public Relations Officer of the Obafemi Awolowo
University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile Ife, Mr. Olu Bello, had denied the
report that a suspected Ebola virus patient had been admitted to the hospital.
Bello said he also heard that
a student of the OAU, who returned from Port Harcourt, was down with the virus
but he said the hospital did not have any case of Ebola.
“There is no case of Ebola at the OAUTHC. Nothing like
that; I also heard something like that but such rumour has been causing
unnecessary tension among the people but it is not true.”
When contacted, the Public
Relations Officer of the university, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, said
the university would make its findings known to the public later Tuesday night.
Olanrewaju later told The
Punch that the ailing student had been moved to Lagos.
Though, medical officials in
the hospital had denied that the said student tested positive to the Ebola
virus, they confirmed that the Federal Government Emergency Ebola Team had been
contacted.
One of the officials, who
preferred not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak, said the
suspected patient would be made to go through an intensive examination on
Wednesday (today) by the EVD team from Lagos.
Another official claimed that
the symptoms showed by the student “are not too different
from fever”.
The official said, “A
patient was brought to the health centre and due to the fact that she hails
from Port Harcourt there were fears that it might be Ebola. We have carried out
tests on the victim and found that she is suffering from a likely fever. Not
satisfied, we pressed further by holding an emergency meeting which finished
five minutes ago.”
When asked why the hospital
was disinfecting its surroundings, another staff said, “We
are only taking preventive measures. To be 100 per cent satisfied, we have sent
a letter to the Ebola Emergency Team in Lagos and the team should arrive by
tomorrow (today).”
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