The
Federal and Lagos State Governments have warned churches and healing homes that
specialise in miracles to beware of treating or trying to heal suspected
patients suffering from the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, as that could lead
to the spread of the disease.
Prof. Abdulsalami Nasidi of the
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, who spoke in Lagos, southwest
Nigeria, said some of the affected people with EVD in neighbouring countries
might want to come to Lagos, Nigeria where there were many healing houses that
claim to have cure for diseases to get healing.
There have been several cases
where people from African countries with serious ailments flocked to some
churches and other miracle centres in Lagos to get healing for their ailment.
According to Nasidi, such healing
houses and churches should be warned as they could be used to spread the deadly
virus all in the name of trying to heal victims of the disease.
He appealed to healing houses or
miracle centres that have patients with symptoms of EVD to quickly report such
to the government for immediate action to curtail any possibility of spreading
the disease.
Nasidi stated that in regions
where EVD had killed many people, some of the victims had flocked to healing
houses for cure, but ended up spreading the virus, with the supposed healers
contracting the deadly virus, warning that there is no cure or treatment for
EVD for now and that all must be safety conscious.
On how people who came into
contact with Ebola cases were categorised, Nasidi explained that “the revision
of the content is how close you have come in contact with the living or dead
patients. Transmission occurs in these cases not only in the living patient but
also the dead patient. So type I are those who come into direct contact with
the body fluid of the living or dead patient, this is the primary high risk
group.
“The second category are those
who came contact with facilities used in treating these patients. The third
category is those who come into contact with those who came into very close contact
with the patients or the dead body. The 4th category of people are within the
area of active transmission of the virus.”
He also disclosed that the sample
of the victim taken to Dakar in Senegal for test was never taken there, saying
that “we had packaged all the samples to send to Dakar, but we were very
disappointed that the courier at the last moment rejected taking the sample.
That is why we immediately sought for second option. We will still dispatch it
to Dakar, but the WHO has accepted the preliminary result that he died of
Ebola.
Special Adviser to the Lagos
Governor on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina also appealed to healing houses
not to take risk in trying to cure people with suspected cases of EVD as such
would amount to further spreading the disease.
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