Fear gripped students, parents and staff
of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on Tuesday over a report that a
patient on
admission at the OAU Health Centre was a suspected Ebola
Virus Disease victim.
Though the management of the school
initially denied the development but the Oyo State Commissioner for
Health, Dr. Temitope Ilori, said the sick student had confessed having
contact with the late Port Harcourt doctor, Iyke Enemuo, who died of the
EVD after he secretly treated an infected ECOWAS diplomat, Olu-Ibukun
Koye, in a hotel in the Rivers State capital.
The commissioner said the female student had been put in the isolation ward.
Ilori said, “I was told that a student of
the OAU who had contact with the doctor who died of the Ebola virus in
Port Harcourt walked into the health centre when she was sick.
“She was said to have told doctors at the
health centre that she had contact with the Port Harcourt doctor and
was put under surveillance but she said she tested negative that time.
“Now she returned to the OAU to continue
with her studies and was sick. She was said to have walked to the health
centre and told them everything about her contact with the doctor.
“Her blood sample has been taken for
another test in Lagos and we are awaiting the result. We pray she is not
positive but she has been isolated at the health centre.”
When one of our correspondents visited
the hospital on Tuesday, it was observed that health officials were
disinfecting the surroundings of the medical centre and more attention
was paid to places where patients sit before being attended to.
It was also learnt that top officials of
the hospital held an emergency meeting after testing the suspected
patient, who was said to have been on admission in the hospital since
Monday.
Before the confirmation by the
commissioner, the Public Relations Officer of the Obafemi Awolowo
University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile Ife, Mr. Olu Bello, had denied
the report that a suspected Ebola virus patient had been admitted to
the hospital.
Bello said he also heard that a student
of the OAU, who returned from Port Harcourt, was down with the virus but
he said the hospital did not have any case of Ebola.
“There is no case of Ebola at the OAUTHC.
Nothing like that; I also heard something like that but such rumour has
been causing unnecessary tension among the people but it is not true.”
When contacted, the Public Relations
Officer of the university, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, said the university
would make its findings known to the public later Tuesday night.
“It is a suspicion; we don’t know yet. We
will make our position on it known tonight. We are still working; we
are in the office now,” he told one of our correspondents on the phone.
Olanrewaju later told The Punch that the ailing student had been moved to Lagos.
Though, medical officials in the hospital
had denied that the said student tested positive to the Ebola virus,
they confirmed that the Federal Government Emergency Ebola Team had been
contacted.
One of the officials, who preferred not
to be identified because he was not authorised to speak, said the
suspected patient would be made to go through an intensive examination
on Wednesday (today) by the EVD team from Lagos.
Another official claimed that the symptoms showed by the student “are not too different from fever”.
The official said, “A patient was brought
to the health centre and due to the fact that she hails from Port
Harcourt there were fears that it might be Ebola. We have carried out
tests on the victim and found that she is suffering from a likely fever.
Not satisfied, we pressed further by holding an emergency meeting which
finished five minutes ago.”
When asked why the hospital was
disinfecting its surroundings, another staff said, “We are only taking
preventive measures. To be 100 per cent satisfied, we have sent a letter
to the Ebola Emergency Team in Lagos and the team should arrive by
tomorrow (today).”
To ensure calmness in the institution,
the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Bamitale Omole, urged students to desist from
spreading rumours about EVD.
He spoke during the 52nd matriculation ceremony for 5,608 newly-admitted students of OAU on Tuesday.
He said, “A current issue of concern to
us as an institution, which is also related to the judicious use of the
facilities in the halls of residence, is maintaining a high standard of
personal hygiene to halt the spread of EVD. The virus, which is not
airborne, spreads through bodily fluids such as blood, sweat, urine,
saliva and vomit. We should all co-operate to halt the spread of this
disease by arming ourselves with adequate information about the disease
and avoid spreading false rumours that certainly can cause fear and
panic.
“A committee of experts had been set up
in the university and it will step up its sensitisation and
enlightenment campaign about the symptoms, modes of transmission and
preventive measures of the disease.”
Source:Punch Newspaper.
No comments:
Post a Comment