Lagos prepares isolation ward for Ebola victims

Lagos State government has created an isolation ward (pictured) for those who exhibit symptoms of Ebola virus.

Governor Raji Fashola said the facility is ready to use after inspecting it on Friday in company with commissioner for health, Dr Jide Idris, commissioner for special duties, Dr Wale Ahmed, and special adviser on public health, Dr Yewande Adeshina.

Fashola said the state has “a health challenge”, but said as devastating as Ebola is, “it is not an automatic death sentence”, explaining that there are cases of patients who are recovering in other parts of West Africa.

He said: “We are also taking precaution and that is also why we did not go into where the patients are because there is a very strict protocol for going there, so if you are going there, you must wear a fully protected gown.

“In the place where we are expanding to ensure that we are able to cope with anything that comes, you would see the shower there; people have to go through a protocol, one way in, one way out. That is why you cannot go into where patients are now unless you are fully protected appropriately and unless you walk through the mandated process for going in and for coming out.

“Those who are detoxifying and decontaminating they don’t go in. They are waiting outside and those who go in do so under a very rigorous protocol set up with advise from the centre for disease control and then people who are not critically ill and stuffs, where they go and how we are going to be disposing off their refuse and their waste have been worked out.

“Provisions have already been made there so that we can separate very critically ill people from people who are just showing symptoms but who need to be in isolation.”

Fashola said provisions have been made to separate the critically ill from those who are just showing symptoms but who need to be in isolation.

“From what I hear following a long discussion I heard with the leadership of the Centre for Disease Control in Washington yesterday, I was speaking with them comparing what they were doing with what they expected us to be doing. Their personnel are here for clarity working and helping in training people,” he said.

Ebola is not airborne and cannot be contracted until one touches somebody or touches fluid from somebody who has it, he said.

“Now from what the Centre for Disease Control told me yesterday there is no known cure but if it is known and diagnosed early, patients can make full recovery because here you can give them very intense medical care which involves managing their waste, managing their body fluids, giving them antibiotics and fluids to rehydrate their body and to ensure that their immune system is able to find a standing chance to combat and make full recovery as we have seen in some parts of Liberia and Sierra Leone,” he said.

He said the next step is for people to continue to increase their hand washing and follow personal hygiene habits and to quickly report any suspected case, saying it is first about containment, so that people who feel that they have it should not make physical contact with anybody.