Ebola: Rivers asks late doctor’s contacts to come out of hiding

Persons, who had contacts with the late Port Harcourt doctor, Iyke Enemuo, who died of Ebola virus, but have gone underground, have been asked to step out before it is too late.

This is as three persons have tested positive in Port Harcourt and pulled into the quarantine centre at Oduoha in Emuoha local government area of Rivers.

Sampson Tam Parker, the commissioner for health in Rivers State, who made this appeal on Sunday at his daily briefing, said evidence showed that starting the treatment early gave higher chances of survival. He said some of the contacts have rather run to prayer houses for spiritual protection instead of seeking medical help.

The three persons, who have tested positive, were some of those who had contacts with the late doctor. A lady at the late doctor’s hospital is being observed and the blood sample has been sent for test.

The commissioner told newsmen that the three patients include a medical doctor, a pharmacist and another staff member of the hospital that treated Enemuo.

Parker said 50 persons have been identified as high-risk contacts due to their level of contacts with the late doctor. He, however, said 60 others were yet to be tracked, saying some were known to have travelled to Imo, Abia and Akwa Ibom states. He said the commissioners of health in those states have been alerted.

Parker said the state now has a treatment centre and a mobile testing centre, and these have been deployed for action.
He said the wife of the late doctor who has been taken to Lagos for emotional stability is now stable. He did not say anything about the three-month old baby, though he had said two days earlier that the baby had not tested positive to Ebola.
He also said all the affected places (hotel where the diplomat lodged, the late doctor’s hospital, the place where the late doctor was treated, the mortuary where his corpse was deposited) have all been decontaminated. “They are now safe and free to reopen for business”.
The commissioner appealed to the public not to stigmatise the locations and persons associated with Ebola, saying it would scare the contacts into further hiding.
He, however, warned against creating treatment centres in churches.