AGAIN, the Federal and the Lagos State Governments Tuesday affirmed that no Nigerian is infected with the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) and they advised against panic. In a statement Tuesday, the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Government on Media, Hakeem Bello also said that contrary to media reports, Nigeria's Ambassador to Liberia, Mrs. Chigozie Obi-Nnadozie, had no contacts with the late Liberian with Ebola Virus who died in Lagos last Friday after flying into the country from Monrovia.

 

Bello said: "We have since learnt that the official who travelled to Nigeria with the victim and who was mistaken for the Nigerian Ambassador to Liberia, Mrs Chigozie Obi-Nnadozie was actually a representative of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) President. "We hereby tender our unreserved apologies to the ambassador for the inconveniencies this may have caused her both as an individual and a very high Nigerian official. "We, however, wish to state here that the error was made by the official of the Federal Government who was at the briefing on Monday and provided the information at the Lagos Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja."

 

Also, Special Assistant to the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, on Media, Mr. Dan Nwomeh, Tuesday provided more clarifications. Nwomeh said: "Please this clarification is very important. It is the Representative of the ECOWAS President in Liberia, Ambassador Babatunde Ajisomo, who travelled to Nigeria on the same plane as the Ebola patient not the Nigerian Ambassador to Liberia, Ambassador Chigozie Obi -Nnadozie."

 

The Guardian also reliably gathered that the Ebola virus victim came into the country on board ASKY Airlines and not Arik Air.

 

Also, the DailyMailUK online reported yesterday that the Ebola victim, Patrick Sawyer, who sparked fears that a historic outbreak of the disease could spread globally was an American citizen. The DailyMailUK story reads: "Sawyer died this week after becoming noticeably ill on a flight from Liberia in West Africa, where the worst ever outbreak of Ebola is gathering pace, to the city of Lagos in Nigeria. "His case sparked alarm across the globe because he was able to board an international flight while carrying the incurable disease - potentially infecting other passengers who could fly across the world in a nightmare scenario for health experts. "Patrick Sawyer, 40, was planning to return home to Coon Rapids, Minnesota, to be reunited with his children for two of his daughters' birthdays in August.

 

But his death in Lagos, Africa's most populous city, has health workers scrambling to trace those who may have been exposed to him across West Africa, including flight attendants and fellow passengers.

"His devastated wife, Decontee Sawyer, 34, shudders when she thinks how close Sawyer came to returning home to the States for his daughters' birthdays carrying the dreaded virus. "It's a global problem because Patrick could've easily come home with Ebola,' Decontee said to KSTP.'Easy. Easy. It's close, it's at our front door. It knocked down my front door.' "The risk of travelers contracting Ebola is considered low because it requires direct contact with bodily fluids or secretions such as urine, blood, sweat or saliva, experts say. Ebola can't be spread like flu through casual contact or breathing in the same air. "Patients are contagious only once the disease has progressed to the point they show symptoms, according to the WHO. And the most vulnerable are health care workers and relatives who come in much closer contact with the sick.

 

Still, witnesses say Sawyer, a 40-year-old Liberian Finance Ministry employee en route to a conference in Nigeria, was vomiting and had diarrhea aboard at least one of his flights with some 50 other passengers aboard. Ebola can be contracted from traces of feces or vomit.

 

"Sawyer was immediately quarantined upon arrival in Lagos - a city of 21 million people - and Nigerian authorities say his fellow travelers were advised of Ebola's symptoms and then were allowed to leave. The incubation period can be as long as 21 days, meaning anyone infected may not fall ill for several weeks. "Health officials rely on 'contact tracing' - locating anyone who may have been exposed, and then anyone who may have come into contact with that person.

 

That may prove impossible, given that other passengers journeyed on to dozens of other cities. "Stephan Monroe of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday that 'Ebola poses little risk to the general U.S. population.' "However, he told AFP: 'The concern is that the outbreak can be reseeded, much like a forest fire with sparks from one tree. That is clearly what happened in Liberia.'

 

Sawyer's death on Friday has led to tighter screening of airline passengers in West Africa, where an unprecedented outbreak that emerged in March has killed more than 670 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

 

"But some health authorities expressed little confidence in such precautions." "The best thing would be if people did not travel when they were sick, but the problem is people won't say when they're sick. They will lie in order to travel, so it is doubtful travel recommendations would have a big impact,' said Dr. David Heymann, professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "International travel has made the spread of disease via airplanes almost routine. Outbreaks of measles, polio and cholera have been traced back to countries thousands of miles away. "Even Ebola previously traveled the globe this way: During an outbreak in Ivory Coast in the 1990s, the virus infected a veterinarian who traveled to Switzerland, where the disease was snuffed out upon arrival and she ultimately survived, experts say.

 

"Two American aid workers in Liberia have tested positive for the virus and are being treated there. U.S. health officials said Monday that the risk of the deadly germ spreading to the United States is remote. One, Texas-trained doctor Kevin Brantly is said to be in grave condition as the virus takes hold of him.

 

The outbreak started in Guinea in February and spread to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone in weeks.

 

"Dr. Samuel Brisbane on Sunday became the first Liberian doctor to die in an outbreak the World Health Organisation says. A Ugandan doctor working in the country died earlier this month.

 

"The mere prospect of Ebola in Africa's most populous nation has Nigerians on edge. "In Nigeria's capital, Abuja, Alex Akinwale, a 35-year-old entrepreneur, said he is particularly concerned about taking the bus, which is the only affordable way to travel. "It's actually making me very nervous. If I had my own car, I would be safer,' he said. 'The doctors are on strike, and that means they are not prepared for it. For now I'm trying to be very careful.'

 

"It's an unprecedented public health scenario: Since 1976, when the virus was first discovered, Ebola outbreaks were limited to remote corners of Congo and Uganda, far from urban centres, and stayed within the borders of a single country.

 

This time, cases first emerged in Guinea, and before long hundreds of others were stricken in Liberia and Sierra Leone. "Those are some of the poorest countries in the world, with few doctors and nurses to treat sick patients let alone determine who is well enough to travel.

 

In Sawyer's case, it appears nothing was done to question him until he fell sick on his second flight with Asky Airlines. An airline spokesman would not comment on what precautions were being taken in the aftermath of Sawyer's journey.

 

"Liberian Assistant Health Minister, Tolbert Nyenswah told the Associated Press last week that there had been no screening at Liberia's Monrovia airport. "That changed quickly over the weekend, when President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said a new policy on inspecting and testing all outgoing and incoming passengers will be strictly observed. "She also announced that some borders were being closed and communities with large numbers of Ebola cases would be quarantined.

 

"International travelers departing from the capitals of Sierra Leone and Guinea are also being checked for signs of fever, airport officials said. Buckets of chlorine are also on hand at Sierra Leone's airport in Freetown for disinfection, authorities said. "Still, detecting Ebola in departing passengers might be tricky, since its initial symptoms are similar to many other diseases, including malaria and typhoid fever. 'It will be very difficult now to contain this outbreak because it's spread,' Heymann said. 'The chance to stop it quickly was months ago before it crossed borders ... but this can still be stopped if there is good hospital infection control, contact tracing and collaboration between countries.'

 

"Nigerian authorities so far have identified 59 people who came into contact with Sawyer and have tested 20, said Lagos State Health Commissioner Jide Idris. "Among them were officials from ECOWAS, a West African governing body, airline employees, health workers and the Nigerian ambassador to Liberia, he said. He said there have been no new cases of the disease."