•  Hospital temporarily shut down  •Doctors insist strike must continue

Crusoe Osagie and Martha Momoh in Lagos  and Paul Obi in Abuja

In order to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the country, Arik Air has suspended flight operations to Monrovia (Liberia) and Freetown (Sierra Leone) effective today.

This came as First Consultants Medical Centre Limited, the hospital where the 40-year-old Liberian died of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Lagos, yesterday revealed how it prevented the disease from spreading to parts of the country.

According to a statement issued by the airline in Lagos and signed by its media officer, Mr. Ola Banji, the disease which was officially confirmed in Lagos last week, killed a Liberian national who flew into the country from Monrovia via Lome (Togo) last week.

The  airline said with this, the suspension would be in force until further notice.

It added that the decision was a pre-cautionary measure aimed at safeguarding the precious lives of Nigerians.

“Arik Air is taking this important step as a concerned corporate citizen, bearing the interest of Nigerians at heart. We acknowledge the steps that the Federal Government of Nigeria is currently undertaking to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. However, we feel especially compelled to take the business decision to immediately suspend flight services into the two Ebola affected countries due to our interest in the well being of Nigerians.

“At the early stages of the contagion's development across West Africa, the Gambian government took the proactive decision to stop airlines (including Arik Air) from bringing inbound passengers from Monrovia, Conakry (Guinea) and Freetown into Banjul. Arik Air is taking this important step as a concerned corporate citizen bearing the interest of Nigerians at heart. We acknowledge the steps that the Federal Government of Nigeria is currently undertaking to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. However, we feel especially compelled to take the business decision to immediately suspend flight services into the two Ebola affected countries due to  our interest in the well being of Nigerians.

Hence, in line with the actions taken by the Gambian government, we trust that the Federal Government of Nigeria shall take all steps necessary to control and curtail  the spread of the virus.

“We humbly suggest that as a first step, all inbound flights into Nigeria  which originate from any of the Ebola affected countries, be immediately suspended. At Arik Air, our core vision and purpose is, ‘to provide world-class experiences and services which are safe, reliable and continually contribute towards improved quality of life as well as the elevation of Nigeria's global standing."’

Motivated by this guiding principle, we would therefore like to assure our guests (and indeed all Nigerians) that their continued safety shall always be at the forefront of all business decisions taken by Arik Air. Fly safe, fly well, fly Arik Air,” the statement noted.

Meanwhile, in a statement signed by the Chief Consultant and Medical Director, Dr. B.N. Ohiaeri and the Senior Consultant  and Endocrinologist, Dr. A.S. Adadevoh and obtained by THISDAY, the hospital located at Ikoyi Road, Obalende, Lagos, said its effort to keep the patient confined in the hospital, against intense pressure from his organisation to release him to attend an important assignment in Calabar, Cross River State, saved the nation from an imminent spread of the highly infectious disease.

"We refused for him to be let out of the hospital in spite of the intense pressure, as we were told that he was a senior ECOWAS official and had an important role to play at the ECOWAS convention in Calabar," the hospital said.

"We hope that by our action of preventing this gentleman from being extracted from our hospital and travelling to Calabar, we have been able to prevent the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria," the statement added.

Recounting the genesis of the issue that rapidly became a national emergency, the hospital statement explained that "a 40-year-old gentleman came into the hospital with symptoms suggestive of malaria (fever, headache and extreme weakness) on Sunday night, July 20, 2014.

"He was fully conscious and gave us his clinical history and told us he is a senior diplomat from Liberia. Laboratory investigation confirmed malaria, while other tests for HIV, Hepatitis B and C were negative. He was admitted and treatment commenced.

"However, due to the fact that he was not responding to treatment but rather was developing haemorrhagic symptoms, we further questioned him. He denied having been in contact with any person with EVD at home, in any hospital or at any burial. In spite of this denial, we decided to conduct further tests for possible infectious haemorrhagic disease especially EVD, based on the fact that he was a Liberian citizen and the recent outbreak of the disease in that country," the hospital stated.

The Consultants Medical Centre Limited said it immediately isolated and quarantined the patient, commenced barrier nursing and simultaneously contacted the Lagos State Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Health to enquire where further laboratory tests could be performed.

According to the hospital, initial test result from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), indicated a signal of possible EVD, but required confirmation.

"We then took steps to reach out to senior officials in the office of the Secretary of Health of the United States of America, who promptly assisted us with the contacts of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Laboratory Centre in Senegal.

"Working jointly with the state, federal agencies and international agencies, we were able to obtain confirmation that the patient was infected with the EVD (Zaire Strain) and the gentleman subsequently died on Friday, July 25, at 6.50 am.”

The hospital explained that orderly temporary shut down of the hospital with immediate evacuation of in-house patients followed as well as professional removal of the body and its incineration under WHO guidelines, witnessed by all appropriate agencies.

It said that in keeping with the WHO guidelines, the hospital is shut down briefly as full decontamination exercise is currently in progress and the reopening of the hospital will also be in accordance with WHO guidelines.

However, hope that the threat of the contagious Ebola virus will compel the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to call off its prolonged nationwide strike was dashed at the weekend as the doctors insisted on continuing with their industrial action.

Indications had emerged that the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the NMA which took place in Abuja at the weekend would lead to the end of the strike.

The meeting, which started on Saturday, failed to call off the strike  as delegates to the NEC opined that there was no concrete proof that the federal government had made any effort to resolve the crisis.

NMA Vice-President,  Dr. Titus Ibekwe, told THISDAY that the NMA executives could not push through with the idea to call off the strike given that delegates refused to back down.

He said: "We are very concern with what is going on in the country, and we were looking towards the issue being sorted out, but we didn’t get that."

Ibekwe explained that "the delegates maintained that they have not seen any change on the side of the government,  so the strike continues."

Pressed further on the current tension regarding the threat of Ebola virus, Ibekwe declined to comment,  stating that he would not want to go into such issues.

But a source familiar with the deliberations at the NEC meeting told THISDAY that the doctors were sceptical of "some ambiguities contained in the circulars" issued out by the government.

The source who pleaded anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the issue, explained that though there were moves by some doctors to plead for the call off of the strike given the Ebola threat,  other NEC members at the meeting vehemently opposed the idea.

THISDAY could not reach officials at the Federal Ministry of Health as both the Minister,  Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu and the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Linus Awute, were not available for comments.