Four more Ebola patients discharged from hospital

Four more patients on treatment for Ebola virus disease have been released from hospital, the health ministry says. Two male doctors and a female nurse were discharged Monday evening. They “have been managed successfully and are now disease free have been discharged home today,” health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said in a statement. They had caught […]

Four more patients on treatment for Ebola virus disease have been released from hospital, the health ministry says.
Two male doctors and a female nurse were discharged Monday evening.

They “have been managed successfully and are now disease free have been discharged home today,” health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said in a statement.

They had caught the virus from treating the Liberian American Patrick Sawyer, who imported Ebola into Nigeria late July.

His death left workers at First Consultant Medical Centre, where he died from Ebola, in Lagos exposed to the virus.

“The three participated in the treatment of [Sawyer].

The fourth person let out of hospital Monday evening “was a female patient at the time [Sawyer] was on admission,” health authorities said.

Their identities are being closely guarded.

Their release comes days after a previous hospital staff who similarly caught the virus from Sawyer was discharged from hospital.

In all, five people have survived the virus, known to kill up to 90% of those infected.

There is still no known cure or vaccine for Ebola.

Infected people are mainly managed for symptoms.

Treatment is limited to use of antibiotics to fight infections, fluids to minimise the impact of dehydration and electrolytes.

The virus, which broke out in March in Guinea, has killed more than 1,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the World Health Organisation.

In those countries, it had a case fatality rate of 55%.

At least 45% of those infected survived it in the three most affected West African countries.

Only four people in Nigeria, including Sawyer, have died from the disease in Nigeria, where case fatality rate has stayed below 30%.