Ebola: Expatriates flee Port Harcourt

Investigations reveal that foreigners, especially those from Asia countries, who work in multinational companies located in Port Harcourt, are leaving the city in droves for fear of contacting the dreaded virus. Many foreigners, mostly of India extraction, were seen at the Port Harcourt International Airport with their families making efforts to board international flight back […]

Investigations reveal that foreigners, especially those from Asia countries, who work in multinational companies located in Port Harcourt, are leaving the city in droves for fear of contacting the dreaded virus.
Many foreigners, mostly of India extraction, were seen at the Port Harcourt International Airport with their families making efforts to board international flight back to their countries.
Some of the expatriates, who spoke to reporters, said they were afraid of contacting the dreaded virus and decided to go back to their countries. One of them who spoke under the condition of anonymity said, “We are very scared because Ebola has no cure. So we want to go back to India. We don’t want to take chances; hence the reason why we want to go back to our country. I am here with my kids and wife. We want to leave Nigeria for our country.’’
 A Port Harcourt-based medical doctor had died few days after he treated the diplomat, who was a colleague to the late Patrick Sawyer, who ‘imported’ the Ebola disease to Nigeria. Olu-Ibukun Koye, who is a staff of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS), was on the team that received Sawyer, the late Liberian-American diplomat who died in Lagos.
   Health authorities said that Koye evaded surveillance and travelled to Port Harcourt after he took ill. He was reportedly treated by a Port Harcourt-based doctor, Ikechukwu Samuel Enemou, who hid him in a hotel located at the eastern part of the city. After days of treatment, Koye reportedly got healed and returned to Lagos while Enemou took ill shortly after that and died on August 22.
When it was discovered that the doctor died of Ebola disease, about 560 people were placed under surveillance. This disclosure came barely 24 hours after federal authorities announced that the disease had been contained in the country, with only one case remaining.
Confirming that Dr. Enemou died of Ebola disease, the Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr Sampson Parker said, “It is with heavy heart that I announce to you that the Ebola virus disease has claimed its first victim in Rivers State, and the first outside Lagos. Dr Sam Enemou died on August 22, 2014. The Rivers State Ministry of Health, on becoming aware of what led to his death, immediately commenced investigations and contact tracing.
“As at today, about 560 contacts from a hotel, patients of Dr Enemou and patients of the hospital where he was treated until his death, have been identified and restricted in Rivers State. The locations have been decontaminated,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, there was a mild drama at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital where the late Dr Enemou’s body was deposited when members of staff abandoned their duty posts upon the discovery that he died of Ebola virus disease.
It was further disclosed that Dr Enemou’s widow, who is also a medical doctor, his sister, Chinyere and a patient who shared the ward with him, contacted the deadly virus and subsequently took ill. Mrs. Enemou was quarantined at the Lagos isolation centre together with her three-month-old baby while her sister and the patient were quarantined at Eduha, the Rivers State quarantine centre.  Chinyere is said to have recovered and discharged. Mrs. Enemou has also recovered and will soon be discharged. But the patient who shared the same ward with Enemou was not that lucky; she died last week.
On August 28, 2014, head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Abdulsalam Nasidi had told journalists that Nigeria would chase Ebola out of the country as early as September 6. Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, Nigeria’s Minister of Health also announced that the deadly virus had been successfully contained.
Speaking on the Port Harcourt incident at a press briefing in Abuja, the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu confirmed that the diplomat evaded surveillance in Lagos.
“We understand that he consulted a doctor and was treated for some symptoms. After four days, following a manhunt for him, he returned to Lagos and was found to be without symptoms. Further laboratory tests indicate that he suffered from Ebola. The Incident Management Committee has already deployed a very strong team to Port Harcourt to work with the health authorities of Rivers State. The situation has effectively been managed,’’ the minister told reporters in Abuja. He, however, added that the diplomat’s case “would have been of no further interest since he had completed the 21 days of surveillance without any other issue, but for the fact that the doctor who treated him had died.’’
“The doctor is believed to have died of the disease within a very short period, sparking interest in further dynamics of the virus and its interactions with human immune system. A lot has to be studied. There are things we might still learn about this disease. All the cases confirmed have been limited to people who had direct or indirect contact with Sawyer, prompting the Ministry of Health’s declaration that Nigeria had managed to contain the outbreak,’’ Chukwu  further stated.
Since the Ebola outbreak in Port Harcourt, the Garden City has lost its peace. Residents now live in fear. Body contact, backslapping and the traditional handshake have become a taboo in the city. Nightlife, which the Rivers State capital is noted for, has become a nightmare. In churches, the spiritual laying of hands by clergies has stopped. In various hospitals, mere symptoms of fever and diarrhea have become a dangerous venture medics don’t want to trade on. Hospitals in Port Harcourt and its environs now reject patients with symptoms of malaria and diarrhea.
The prices of hand-gloves and sanitisers have increased tremendously.
 Addressing traditional rulers and religious leaders in Port Harcourt on the Ebola disease, Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State enjoined them to sensitise the people in their different domains and partner with his administration in its rescue efforts.  
The state government is also getting assistance from multinational companies in Port Harcourt in its fight against the virus.