Ebola hits spouses of hospital staff who tended Sawyer

The spouses of two health workers who tended Patrick Sawyer in hospital have tested positive for Ebola virus diseases, health authorities confirmed Friday, raising total number of infections to 14. Both are the first time Ebola is diagnosed in secondary contacts of Sawyer, who died after infecting mostly staff and a hospitalised patient he had […]

The spouses of two health workers who tended Patrick Sawyer in hospital have tested positive for Ebola virus diseases, health authorities confirmed Friday, raising total number of infections to 14.

Both are the first time Ebola is diagnosed in secondary contacts of Sawyer, who died after infecting mostly staff and a hospitalised patient he had direct contact with in hospital.

The new infections brings to four the total number of Ebola cases now on isolation treatment.

Five other patients were discharged from hospital in recent days after successfully undergoing treatment for Ebola virus disease.

The discharged patients have been put on psychosocial therapy to help them deal with getting back to life after Ebola, said health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.

The infection that started with Sawyer has already killed five Nigerians, mostly hospital staff who treated him, and now emerges in their spouses for the first time.

A meeting of private hospital owners under the Guild of Medical Directors with the health ministry in Friday broke up for a minute’s silence in honour of Dr Ameyo Adedavoh, a consultant who led a medical team on Sawyer at First Consultant Medical Centre in Lagos.

Chukwu said Adedavoh paid with her life to ensure Nigerians were not contaminated by Ebola.

She “took the brunt of physically blocking [Sawyer ] from running away from [hospital] which would have not only infected more people but also made contact tracing difficult,” said Chukwu.

“I am confident that she will be honoured by Nigeria at the appropriate time.”

Some 67 people identified as contacts were taken off surveillance after they completed 21 days–the known incubation period for Ebola–without showing symptoms.

Meanwhile, sites for diagnosing Ebola have multiplied across six sites: Lagos, Enugu, Ibadan, Irrua, Ogun and Abuja, though Enugu includes a mobile diagnosis centre.