Officials at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) announced today that 15 unnamed people have been quarantined because they had contact with a patient that had symptoms resembling Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) who died Wednesday afternoon, according to the Nigerian news source, This Day Live.
UCTH Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr. Thomas Agan made the announcement at a press conference today. Agan did confirm that health personnel who had contact with the deceased are among those quarantined.
Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of the hospital, Dr. Queeneth Kalu said, “We have sent blood samples for testing and quarantined identified contacts.”
Ebola arrived in Nigeria last summer when Liberian businessman Patrick Sawyer collapsed in the Lagos Airport. One year ago, Nigeria was declared Ebola-free after reporting 20 confirmed and probable cases of EVD and 8 fatalities.
In the hub of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the World Health Organization said no EVD cases were reported in the week ending Oct. 4 for the first time since Mar. 2014.
Since the beginning of the outbreak there have been a total of 28,421 reported confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of EVD in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone up to 4 October, with 11,297 reported deaths (this total includes reported deaths among probable and suspected cases, although outcomes for many cases are unknown).
Robert Herriman is a microbiologist and the Editor-in-Chief of Outbreak News Today and the Executive Editor of The Global Dispatch
Follow @bactiman63
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