No case of Ebola at Garki, hospital taking precaution – Official

Dr Wada who spoke to this reporter at the hospital which stood open said that there was no confirmed case of Ebola virus recorded at the hospital, and no official statement by the hospital has been given to that effect; so the rumour was false.He explained that the hospital had to take some samples from […]

Dr Wada who spoke to this reporter at the hospital which stood open said that there was no confirmed case of Ebola virus recorded at the hospital, and no official statement by the hospital has been given to that effect; so the rumour was false.
He explained that the hospital had to take some samples from a patient who presented himself at the hospital with some viral symptoms of his own disease but that the samples were yet to be confirmed.
He said, “We needed to take some samples from a patient who came with his own disease but because we are in a epidemic era, it’s a precaution by specialist in the hospital to do so, rather than we suspecting this is Ebola, we try to diagnosis it.
“No patient died of Ebola at the hospital, though the patient has passed on, he came with his own symptoms but because of the period that we are in, we needed to be cautious, because prevention is better than cure.
“We decided to take samples from him because of the short period he spent with us just as a precaution.
“We also shut down the accident and emergency unit to fumigate it as a precaution.”
Speaking on the measures put in place at the hospital to curb any spread or eventual record of the virus if a case enters the FCT, Wada said, “As you can see the hospital is functioning, but to safe guard the lives of the health workers at the onset of the outbreak of the virus in Lagos, the management instituted the universal precaution to handle patients in hospital.
“We all need to be on heightened alert and adhere to universal precaution, washing of hands and being cautious around sick people.
“ We need to inform the relevant authorities if we suspect any case close to us so as to enable the authorities move in swiftly.”
However the chief medical director of the hospital, Dr Elijah Miner said that the hospital had shut down the accident and emergency unit in order to fumigate it due to the influx of people that the hospital had seen because of the strike action at other hospitals.
According to him the procedure was routine as the theatres were also shut down to enable the management fumigated them.
His words, “We fumigated theatres to eliminate the bad smell coming from there, all these are precaution measures and are simply routine.”