LAGOS State is facing the problem of shortage of volunteers to help care for the victims of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). In spite of a life insurance scheme and N60, 000 daily allowance being offered by the state government, health workers and volunteers are still not forthcoming.

This is coming as the Ebola disease saga in Nigeria took a sinister twist with cases of Ebola virus infection emerging among two spouses of the health workers (primary contacts) that attended to the index (first) case, Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer.

 

Minister for Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, who confirmed the development in an announcement  yesterday in Abuja,  said the new cases are among the secondary contacts who have been under surveillance in Lagos but were quarantined as soon as they developed Ebola symptoms.

Disturbed by the dearth of volunteers, the Lagos State Government has appealed to health workers and volunteers to come forward to join the state’s effort in the battle against the dreaded EVD.

Lagos State Commissioner for Health Dr. Jide Idris, said they were striving to save the lives of confirmed Ebola cases but “our major challenge in this regard is personnel with requisite expertise, hence, our call for volunteers.

“We require experts in different medical fields including critical care and infectious diseases and these still need to be trained using the World Health Organisation (WHO) protocol which may require up to five days of committed training before such experts can apply their skills safely without risk to themselves. Our international experts are currently providing this training on site.”

 

The Federal Government, last Thursday approved the release of N200 million to Lagos State to fight the disease.

However, the emergence of Ebola infected secondary contacts is unprecedented and heightens fears about the possibility of the disease spreading beyond expectations.

It also raises questions about the validity of assurances earlier given about the general low risk of exposure to the index case alleged to have been taken to hospital immediately on arrival at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

Reaching all contacts