Ebola Virus: Churches, Healers Warned

Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Federal and Lagos State Governments have warned churches and healing homes that specialise in miracles to beware of treating or trying to heal suspected patients suffering from the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, as that could lead to the spread of the disease.

Prof. Abdulsalami Nasidi of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, who spoke in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, said some of the affected people with EVD in neighbouring countries might want to come to Lagos, Nigeria where there were many healing houses that claim to have cure for diseases to get healing.

There have been several cases where people from African countries with serious ailments flocked to some churches and other miracle centres in Lagos to get healing for their ailment.

According to Nasidi, such healing houses and churches should be warned as they could be used to spread the deadly virus all in the name of trying to heal victims of the disease.

He appealed to healing houses or miracle centres that have patients with symptoms of EVD to quickly report such to the government for immediate action to curtail any possibility of spreading the disease.

Nasidi stated that in regions where EVD had killed many people, some of the victims had flocked to healing houses for cure, but ended up spreading the virus, with the supposed healers contracting the deadly virus, warning that there is no cure or treatment for EVD for now and that all must be safety conscious.

On how people who came into contact with Ebola cases were categorised, Nasidi explained that “the revision of the content is how close you have come in contact with the living or dead patients. Transmission occurs in these cases not only in the living patient but also the dead patient. So type I are those who come into direct contact with the body fluid of the living or dead patient, this is the primary high risk group.

“The second category are those who came contact with facilities used in treating these patients. The third category is those who come into contact with those who came into very close contact with the patients or the dead body. The 4th category of people are within the area of active transmission of the virus.”

He also disclosed that the sample of the victim taken to Dakar in Senegal for test was never taken there, saying that “we had packaged all the samples to send to Dakar, but we were very disappointed that the courier at the last moment rejected taking the sample. That is why we immediately sought for second option. We will still dispatch it to Dakar, but the WHO has accepted the preliminary result that he died of Ebola.

Special Adviser to the Lagos Governor on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina also appealed to healing houses not to take risk in trying to cure people with suspected cases of EVD as such would amount to further spreading the disease.

According to Prof. Oyawale Tomori, President, Nigeria Academy of Science, “we have to alert people that there is absolutely no need to panic. If that is the case, you will not find me here because I was in 1995 in Quebec for three weeks dealing with Ebola cases and I am still alive.

“If you follow the basic rules of washing your hands and prevention control, you should have nothing to worry about. In places where the epidemic has spread, it is because people have abandoned the basic rule and tenet of prevention control and where people have introduced that, the epidemic has been stopped in its track. We must be alert until the epidemic is declared free in those areas where it is now; we must be on the alert.”

Lagos Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris said an isolation ward had been designated by the Lagos State Ministry of Health at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba for case management, adding that the designation of three other health facilities was underway.

“A total of 100 Personal Protective Equipment, PPE, were procured by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC and the Federal Ministry of Health, FMOH, and have been distributed to the private hospital and the State Ministry of Health. WHO also donated 250 PPEs to the NCDC/FMOH.

“Adhering strictly to WHO guidelines, the body of the deceased patient was decontaminated using 10% sodium hypochlorite and cremated, with the permission of the government of Liberia. A cremation urn has been prepared for dispatch to the family. The vehicle that conveyed the remains was also fully decontaminated,” he stated.

According to Idris, government could categorically state that as of today only one case of imported Ebola and one death had been recorded in Lagos, saying that no Nigerian had been infected, but that all contacts were being actively followed.

“We call on all Nigerians to be calm and not panic and do hereby assure them that both the State and Federal Governments are up in arms to ensure that the virus did not escape and that no Nigeria is infected with this virus,” he assured.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota wife of the Liberian-American man who died last week in Nigeria from the Ebola virus said on Tuesday she wants to use his memory to spur efforts to fight the disease, which has also infected two U.S. relief workers in Liberia.

Reuters reports that Decontee Sawyer, a 34-year-old counselor for sexual assault victims and mother of three small girls, said Minneapolis’ large and tight-knit Liberian community has woken up to the problem of Ebola after her husband’s death. She added that she hopes to encourage them to donate funds and equipment to relief workers risking their lives fighting the disease.

Patrick Sawyer, 40, who died on Friday in Lagos, was the first recorded case of Ebola in Nigeria. The hospital where he had been put in isolation several days earlier was evacuated and decontaminated on Monday.

“We want to encourage all Liberians and friends of Liberians to donate money or protective gear and send it to these groups that are already at the forefront in fighting Ebola,” Sawyer told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Decontee, a Liberian-born U.S. citizen like her husband, praised groups such as Samaritan’s Purse and Global Health Ministries doing relief work in Ebola-hit areas.

“They are risking their lives,” she said.

Sawyer had flown to Lagos from Liberia, and his death put airlines and surrounding countries on the alert. Liberia closed its borders, some airlines suspended flights to Liberia and authorities were tracking people who had had contact with him.

He had worked for the Liberian government since 2008, returning every six months or so to his family in the Minneapolis suburbs.

Ebola is believed to have killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the outbreak began in February, according to the World Health Organisation.

The contagious disease, which has no known cure, has symptoms that include vomiting, diarrhea and internal and external bleeding. The fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent although Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of those who catch it.

A U.S. doctor with Samaritan’s Purse, Kent Brantly, has come down with the disease and is in hospital in Liberia fighting for his life as is another American health volunteer, Nancy Writebol.  Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor leading Sierra Leone’s fight against the worst Ebola outbreak on record, died from the virus on Tuesday.