Lagos State Government has reiterated that the female doctor who became infected with the Ebola virus is not dead as speculations on the issue continue to surface.
Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Jide Idris.
Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris made an emphatic note of this during a news briefing to intimate journalists on updates on the disease at Alausa, Ikeja, noting that the female medical doctor who attended to the index case of Ebola Virus Disease at a private hospital in Lagos is the only confirmed case to date out of the eight primary contact under clinical surveillance and care.
“Her being infected is largely due to the fact that she was a primary contact when the index case presented. At that point in time, the disease was not known to have been imported into the country”, Idris explained.
While stressing that the essence of the briefing was to highlight the mode of transmission of Ebola Virus Disease, Idirs said the disease is transmissible through direct contact with broken skin, mucous membranes and secretions of an infected person or through direct contact with materials and surfaces that have been contaminated by an infected person.
“This is a call for vigilance as human to human transmission is only achieved by physical contact with a person who is acutely and gravely ill from Ebola virus through body fluids such as blood, urine, stool, saliva, breast milk and semen. Burial ceremonies where mourners including family members have direct contact with patients who died of Ebola have also played a role in the spread of the disease”, Idris said.
Speaking further, Idris said “We also count on the cooperation of the good people of Lagos State as your government, in partnership with the Federal government may need in the course of taking decisions in the overriding interest of the public, institute measures that may be considered inconvenient to some people.”