Ebola survivor, Igonoh, gives birth to baby girl

Famous Nigerian Ebola survivor, Ada Igonoh, was delivered of a baby girl in the United States of America on Tuesday, November 3.

Igonoh, who worked with Stella Adadevoh in managing Nigeria’s index Ebola case at the First Consultants Medical Centre(FCMC), Lagos, had her first child at the Greater El-Monte Community Hospital in California, US.

According to the management of the First Consultants, the baby girl is healthy and has been certified Ebola free by doctors in the United States.

The hospital added that she had been under medical surveillance during her pregnancy and delivery to avoid exposing the baby to the viral infection.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), male reproductive cell spermatozoon is capable of carrying the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) for as long as 82 days, raising concerns on post-Ebola pregnancy.

As a result of this discovery, men were urged to maintain good personal hygiene after masturbation, and abstain from sex (including oral sex) for three months after onset of symptoms, or use condoms if abstinence is impossible.

The situation for females was not exclusively researched, but notes of caution were issued for Ebola survivors to help them in sexual relationships and child bearing.

Igonoh, who shared her inspiring story with Nigerians, noted that she was exposed to Sawyer while she was re-administering an intravenous fluid on Sawyer, who was on admission at the hospital.

“I was the doctor on call that night so I went in to see him. He was lying in bed with his intravenous (I.V.) fluid bag removed from its metal stand and placed beside him,” she had said.

“He complained that he had stooled about five times that evening and that he wanted to use the bathroom again. I picked up the I.V. bag from his bed and hung it back on the stand.

“I told him I would inform a nurse to come and disconnect the I.V. so he could conveniently go to the bathroom. I walked out of his room and went straight to the nurses’ station where I told the nurse on duty to disconnect his I.V.”

Before Nigeria was declared Ebola-free on October 20, 2014, the country lost Adadevoh, Justina Echelonu, Jato Abdulqudir, and five other people to the disease contracted by 20 people with 12 survivors.