Ekiti State Government has debunked the rumour of the spread of Ebola to the state and cautioned against creating unjustifiable panic through indiscriminate spreading of unsubstantiated rumours about spurious cases of Ebola.
Speaking in Ado Ekiti, the State Commissioner for Health, Professor Olusola Fasubaa assured that there is no known case of the disease in the state and warned that sending callous messages through the Short Message Service (SMS) could lead to avoidable death of innocent and non-Ebola patients.
Professor Fasubaa lamented the unfortunate death of a woman who was said to have vomited and collapsed in premises of the State Ministry of Health and was rejected in four different private hospitals because of the text messages circulated by some unidentified people suspected to be in the Healthcare sector that tagged her ebola patient.
The Commissioner noted a similar case at the NYSC Orientation camp in Ise Ekiti where a young man who had been inadequately treated for malaria collapsed and was abandoned by everybody including the camp’s Healthcare givers from 6am to 3pm when the state government intervened.
Fasubaa who added that the National laboratory in Lagos has declared the blood of the young man Ebola-free, stressed that the patient was fortunate to be alive adding that he could have died from non-attention by the Healthcare givers.
He emphasized that to establish a suspected case of Ebola, the person must have travelled to an infectious area or have contact with an infectious individual who after 2-21days of that contact would develop the symptoms of fever, intense weakness, bone and muscular pains which will later progress to vomiting , diarrhea and organ damage.
Prof Fasubaa appealed to doctors in the state to live up to their responsibilities and not forget the Hippocratic oaths that they all swore to in respect of their clients stressing that not all patients that have fever or vomiting have Ebola.
The Commissioner assured that both the Federal and the State Government would leave no stone towards curtailing the virus, pledging that the state would continue to enlighten the people, adequately train the Healthcare providers and procure necessary materials to the isolation and selected quarantine centers.
Last modified: August 21, 2014
