Medical experts meeting in Geneva, Wednesday, have called for a coordinated international plan to fight the growing outbreak of Ebola currently ravaging parts of West Africa.
This follows Onyebuchi Chukwu, minister of health’s disclosure in Abuja yesterday that he had requested for the experimental Ebola drug from the director of the United States (US) Centre for Disease Control (CDC). The drug, ZMapp, produced from tobacco plants was given to two infected Americans who have so far shown signs of improvement.
Earlier, Chukwu announced the first known death of a Nigerian from the virus, a nurse who attended to Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who imported the disease into the country and died in Lagos last month.
Mounting fears of a potential global outbreak spurred the two-day World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting of international medical experts in Geneva.
Laurie Garrett, global health senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said a collective global response was needed to keep the disease from taking hold in large, densely-populated urban areas where it could spread more easily.
“What will be the global strategy if this virus shows up in Dakar, Dublin, Nairobi, London, in Paris? We have no plan,” Garrett said.
Meanwhile, international relief agency Doctors without Borders has issued “plea after plea in recent days to the international community saying, ‘we are exhausted. We are terrified. We want to leave. Can somebody else please come in and take over?’” Garrett added.
The group is expected to determine if the outbreak as it is constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, and then recommend temporary measures to reduce the potential international spread of the disease. This could include mandatory travel restrictions, health screenings for international travellers and other measures.
Already, British Airways has suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone until August 31 due to the deteriorating public health situation in both countries. However, passengers with tickets can request a full refund or a flight at a later date.
European carriers such as Air France-KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa all continue to fly to West Africa from their hubs in Paris, Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt.
“There is no risk of getting infected by the Ebola virus via air circulation during flight,” notes Lufthansa.
Crews on Brussels Airlines flights have access to special thermoscans to check passengers’ temperature, if they feel it’s necessary. The only other airline so far to cancel any flights is the Middle East airline, Emirates. It has suspended its service to Conakry, Guinea, until further notice. It is still flying to Dakar, Senegal.
Nigeria has, however, intensified screening of arriving passengers at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos with port health officials in full protective gear using infrared-thermometer equipment to scan all arriving passengers, especially those from the West African Coast.
Yakubu Dati, spokesman for Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), noted that if an Ebola case was suspected, a holding bay and quarantine area had been made available.
Nigeria has now recorded seven confirmed cases of the deadly disease. The five others are currently being treated at the isolation ward in Lagos. All the infected Nigerians diagnosed with the virus so far are individuals who had primary contact with Sawyer – the index case.
Chukwu stated that a 24/7 Emergency Operations Centre would be fully functional by today, even as the Ministry of Health makes arrangement to procure isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
“We are embarking on recruiting additional health personnel to strengthen the team that is currently managing the situation in Lagos. We are also setting up a special team to provide counselling and psychosocial support to patients, identified contacts and their families,” the minister said.
WHO says 932 people have died as at yesterday, up from 887 reported two days ago. 1,711 cases of the disease have been recorded so far. Saudi Arabia reported that a man died, allegedly of the virus, after a trip to Sierra Leone.
Ebola, formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, affects humans and non-human primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees), with fruit bats considered the likely host of the virus. Sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat are typical signs and symptoms. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.
While incubation period, or the time interval from infection to onset of symptoms, is from 2 to 21 days, the patients become contagious once they begin to show symptoms, but are not contagious during the incubation period.
Ameto Akpe, Alexander Chiejina, Elizabeth Archibong, Harrison Edeh & Sade Williams
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