Ebola Update: Turkey clears Nigerian woman of Ebola

Turkish Health Ministry officials said yesterday that 32-year-old Nigerian woman Stella Omorowa and her son, who were put under medical supervision on Tuesday at Istanbul Ataturk International Airport for showing symptoms of the Ebola virus, are suffering from malaria.

The woman and her four-year-old son were on a Turkish Airlines flight from Lagos to Istanbul when the mother told the cabin crew she was feeling unwell.

According to the Health Ministry, the woman who was complaining of high fever and vomiting after arriving at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport had been diagnosed with malaria.

Ministry officials said that the woman needed urgent treatment for severe form of malaria.

The woman is still being medically examined, and whether she has the virus has not yet been determined, the officials said.

In Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration has advised all hospitals to consider all cases of high fever as the Ebola virus until proven otherwise.

It said this is a precautionary method against the spread of the virus

Executive Secretary, FCT Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed, said yesterday that although the Federal Ministry of Health is ensuring that all passengers at the airports are checked, no one is applying such measures in motor parks in the FCT which is known to transport more people from Lagos.

Dr. Mohammed said FCT  Minister Bala Mohamed would be advised to implement a law in the FCT that will make it compulsory for all public and private establishments to provide hand sanitisers or water and soap for people going into their establishments.

He said most of the primary health workers had been trained on how best to protect themselves against the spread of the disease.

Mohammed said, “We have over 215 primary health care centres with 1000 staff, we invited a few and trained them on how to protect themselves, we told them to regard any patient with high fever as Ebola until proven otherwise, so that they will not get infected, because when a doctor or nurse is infected, the chain of transmission starts from there to families and friends and before you realise it there will be an outbreak.

“We have done the first part of the training and will continue with more and we are going to discuss with the Minister that we are worried about the cases in Lagos and that people will be travelling in and out, we are going to look into the issue, in the airports the Federal Government has taken measures but what about in our motor parks? We are going to bring up all of these issues.

“We will discuss with the Minister to establish a law in public and private establishment that they should have sanitizers or water and soap to wash hands at the entrance.”

Director FCT Emergency Management Department Abbas Idriss, said the FCT had come up with Ebola response, multidisciplinary responds plan and operation team who would go round and take care of victims.

His words, “So many flights are coming in from Lagos, so many buses and we don’t know who had contact with any of those victims, so we have to be careful and prepared, in every emergency, preparedness is key, we have discussed and taken some measures in which in we must follow up on.

“Apart from flights coming in, buses are also coming into Abuja and the parks have been neglected, the primary health care department which has the responsibility of reaching out to the communities within the FCT because majority of people are those living in the outskirt of Abuja, we have discussed it and adequate measures are going to be put in place

“We have to come up with Ebola response, multidisciplinary responds plan and operation team who will go round and take care of victims.”