The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, yesterday reaffirmed that the Federal Government was making appreciable progress in containing the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country.
He was speaking in Abuja at the second emergency meeting of the National Council on Health (NCH) to evaluate the efforts so far made in tackling EVD in the country.
The Minister, who is the chairman of the Council, disclosed that as of 31st August, 2014, the total number of cases of EVD in Nigeria was 17 while the sum number of cases treated at the isolation ward in Lagos State stood at 13 .
He further informed that the total number of those discharged was seven while the total number of deaths among those treated in Lagos was five.
Onyebuchi gave the total figure currently under treatment in Lagos as two with both patients being stable. He stressed that the three confirmed cases not treated in Lagos comprised a surviving primary contact of the index case (Patrick Sawyer): an ECOWAS Commission staff who became symptomatic, evaded surveillance in Lagos, travelled to Port Harcourt and infected his attending physician.
According to the Minister, the victim is currently under quarantine in Lagos at the moment, undergoing further tests to ensure he is totally free from the virus.
He went on to list the rest to include a private medical practitioner who was infected and died while treating the ECOWAS Commission staff and a female patient who was on admission in the same hospital where the late Port Harcourt Doctor was also admitted. The female patient is said to be presently under treatment in the Isolation ward in Rivers State.
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