Despite the denial by Rivers state health commissioner, Sampson
Parker yesterday, new reports have confirmed that a man has died from the Ebola
Virus Disease in Port Harcourt. At a press conference yesterday, Dr.
Parker said that Ebola did not kill the victim, but fever and diarrhoea
did. Dr. Parker also said that Rivers people should not panic.
An official of the Rivers state Government has now confirmed that the
patient did indeed die of the Ebola Virus Disease.
The official, who
asked not to be named because she was not authorized to speak with
journalists, told Ynaija on the phone that, “Forget yesterday’s press
conference, Ebola is in Port Harcourt, and someone has died. We are now
scrambling to track everybody who was in contact with him.”
The patient, whose name is yet to be made public, was said to have
returned from Lagos and tested positive to the virus while on admission
at a Private hospital in D-line area of the state capital.
The patient – a diplomat is believed to be among those who met Mr.
Sawyer on his arrival in Lagos. He then flew to Port Harcourt where he
took ill.
He was treated at an unnamed hotel in the Rivers state capital.
The doctor’s hospital, Good Heart Hospital, as well as the hotel where he treated the diplomat, have been shut down.
This development is a set back to Nigeria’s effort to contain the deadly virus. Recall that on Tuesday, the Minister of Health had announced that Nigeria had succeeded in halting the spread of the virus in the country.