Nigeria has 12 confirmed cases of the Ebola virus, up from 10 at last
week's count, of which five have almost fully recovered, the health
ministry said on Monday.
It said in a statement that 189 people in
Lagos and six others in the southeastern city of Enugu were under
surveillance. The death toll remains four, it said.
A doctor who had recovered had been discharged from hospital, the ministry said.
The
Ebola virus has killed more than 1 000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone
and Liberia since the outbreak began in March, and four people have died
in Nigeria since it was brought to Lagos by a Liberian man on 20 July.
"Patients
under treatment have now been moved to the new 40 bed capacity
isolation ward provided by the Lagos state government," the health
ministry statement said.
It added that experimental drugs were in
the process of being cleared for the treatment of Ebola, although one,
nano silver, had been rejected because it did not meet requirements.
Fighting
the disease in Nigeria is complicated by the fact that doctors are on
nationwide strike. The ministry of health sacked 16 000 doctors on
Thursday after they refused to end their strike in the midst of an Ebola
epidemic.
Health care workers fighting to stop the disease in
overcrowded and ill-equipped clinics often succumb to Ebola themselves.
The World Health Organisation says more than 170 healthcare workers have
been infected and at least 81 have died.
The death toll from
Ebola is still climbing and the UN health agency faces questions over
whether it should have declared the outbreak a "public health emergency
of international concern" before 8 August.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Write comments