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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| WHO declares Nigeria Ebola-free; lessons learned |
| 2014-10-21 |
| (Reuters) - Nigeria was declared free of the deadly Ebola virus on Monday after a determined doctor and thousands of officials and volunteers helped end an outbreak still ravaging other parts of West Africa and threatening the United States and Spain. Caught unawares when a diplomat arrived with the disease from Liberia, authorities were alerted by Doctor Ameyo Adadevoh, who diagnosed it, kept him in hospital despite protests from him and his government and later died from Ebola herself. They then set about trying to contain it in an overcrowded city of 21 million where it could easily have turned a doomsday scenario if about 300 people who had been in direct or indirect contact with him not been traced and isolated. "This is a spectacular success story," Rui Gama Vaz from the World Health Organization (WHO) told a news conference... STAND YOUR GROUND It was imported to Nigeria when Liberian-American diplomat Patrick Sawyer collapsed at the main international airport in Lagos on July 20. Airport staff were unprepared and the government had not set up any hospital isolation unit, so he was able to infect several people, including health workers in the hospital where he was taken, some of whom had to restrain him to keep him there. Lagos, the commercial hub of Africa's most populous nation, largest economy and leading energy producer, would have been an ideal springboard for Ebola to spread across the country. Adadevoh, doctor on call at the First Consultants hospital in Lagos where Sawyer was brought, prevented the dying man from spreading it further, Benjamin Ohiaeri, a doctor there who survived the disease, told Reuters. Ebola is much more contagious once symptoms become severe. "We agreed that the thing to do was not to let him out of the hospital," Ohiaeri said, even after he became aggressive and demanded to be set free. "If we had let him out, within 24 hours of being here, he would have contacted and infected a lot more people." Sawyer was reported only to have malaria, Ohiaeri said. But Adadevoh noticed he had bloodshot eyes and was passing blood in his urine -- telltale signs of hemorrhagic fever. She left instructions by his bed that under no circumstances should anyone let him leave. At one point, Sawyer ripped off his intravenous tube and a nurse had to put it back, according to a source close to the hospital staff. She later got infected and died. Sawyer then became aggressive and had to be physically restrained. Ohiaeri said a Liberian government official on the phone had even threatened negative consequences if they did not release Sawyer, saying that holding him was tantamount to kidnapping. "The lesson there is: stand your ground," he said... Alex Okoh, Nigeria's director of Port health services, said the lesson the United States and other countries can learn from Nigeria is to "put aside the political barriers and focus on the issues at hand". |
| Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418 |
| #4 Primary lesson learned: Don't let the US government get involved. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-10-21 07:37 |
| #3 The lesson is don't let the 5 star hotel types anywhere near the running of your response. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2014-10-21 06:39 |
| #2 Common sense, reason..... 'lessons?' We don't require any lessons, we've got a new crisis to exploit, nefarious deeds to be done or covered up. Where is my new spin doctor? Stand back please. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-10-21 06:37 |
| #1 "The lesson there is: stand your ground," he said... Containing any epidemic has to have the same spirit. Good on Nigeria to have the spine to do what our feckless government can't. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2014-10-21 00:19 |