All 10 Persons Who Had Direct Contact With Patrick Sawyer Infected With Ebola; 4 Have Died
Patrick Sawyer, you remember, is the Liberian-American who traveled to Liberia where his sister died of Ebola. He contracted Ebola from her, apparently when dealing with her body after her death. The below report says that all ten people who had direct contact with Sawyer after he arrived and collapsed in Nigeria are infected with Ebola.
Sadly,
all 10 persons who had direct contact with Sawyer have all tested positive to the disease. They have all been quarantined in an isolation ward at a Yaba hospital in Lagos. Of the number, four have died, while six are yet alive.
It is however instructive that as wild as the spread of the disease seems, the Nigerian authorities have striven to ensure a containment by ensuring that the infection does not spread beyond the 10 primary contacts with the index case: Patrick Sawyer.
Unfortunately, however,
the 10 primary contacts had contact with some other members of the public, including family members. Thus almost 200 secondary contacts have all been put under surveillance in Lagos and Enugu.
Nonetheless, it is remarkable to note that none of the secondary contact persons, who are under surveillance has so far tested positive to the deadly virus.
What that indicates is that as long as the Nigerian medical authorities are able to rein-in all primary and secondary contacts and shield them from other members of the public as well as closely monitor them, the spread of the infection would have been greatly limited. And that will offer a reprieve, in a way.
It was as a result of the determination of the authorities to ensure that the spread of the disease is contained and quickly tamed, that the young female nurse who had primary contact with Sawyer at First Consultants, but travelled to Enugu to see her husband, was forced back to Lagos along with her husband, especially as she had tested positive to the virus.
Already, some 21 persons who came in contact with the nurse in Enugu were earlier placed under surveillance. However, 15 of them have been cleared of any infection while six remain under surveillance, after they had undergone extensive appraisal from medical experts.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/nigeria-s-goal-to-contain-ebola-within-sawyer-s-contacts-wins-un-praise/186390/
