NIGERIA’S battle against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) suffered a major setback Tuesday. The senior female doctor quarantined for having primary contact with the index case, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, is dead. Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, Senior Consultant and Endocrinologist at First Consultant Medical Centre Ikoyi, Lagos, died Tuesday evening, bringing the number of persons that have died because of the virus in the country to five.This was confirmed to The Guardian late Tuesday night. The Special Assistant (Media and Communication) to the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, Mr. Dan Nwomeh, in a statement said: “The Honourable Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu regrets to announce the death, this evening, of one of the primary contacts of the index Ebola Virus Disease case, the most senior doctor who participated in the management of the patient, a female consultant physician. With this unfortunate development the total number of Ebola Virus-related deaths in Nigeria now stands at five. The other two patients currently under treatment in the isolation wards are stable and are being taken care of.”
Adadevoh was a consultant physician and endocrinologist, and a member of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the British-Nigerian Association. She held an MBBS from the University of Lagos, as well as a diploma in endocrinology from the University of London. A Fellow of the National Postgraduate Medical College, Adadevoh practised in the United Kingdom and Nigeria for more than three decades. She was until her death the lead consultant at First Consultants Medical Centre, Lagos.
Earlier Tuesday, Chukwu said that Adadevoh was getting better.
Despite this tragedy, the Federal Government’s confirmation of five patients of Ebola as being free of the virus has triggered interest in how the country is responding to the scourge.
In an exclusive telephone interview with The Guardian Tuesday, Chukwu said that the country was able to achieve more than 50 per cent success rate in treating EVD patients using standard World Health Organisation (WHO) protocol.
But he advised against chewing bitter kola to prevent the disease as the referenced 1999 study by Prof. Maurice Iwu was inconclusive.
According to him, the standard WHO regimen includes among other things: barrier medicine and barrier nursing; fluid and electrolyte replacement; improving nutrition and micronutrient supplementation.
On an allegation that the minister has not been visible at the quarantine centre, he said: “Every movement of the minister must not be in the public domain. Now for me to enter I have to be properly kitted. I have doctors on site. I know doctors are there and I communicate with them regularly.”
He doused doubts about whether the five patients discharged so far were confirmed or suspected Ebola patients. Chukwu said: “I don’t know what is wrong. Why don’t you believe in Nigeria? I keep repeating everyday that these cases were confirmed. What does confirm mean? They say suspected cases have been released. How can suspected cases be released for goodness sake? Nigeria has 12 confirmed cases. We have discharged five and three are still in isolation receiving treatment. So what do you mean by suspect again? It is unfortunate that no local paper has said that government is doing well. You are leaving foreign media to say so. I am actually not happy that the local media are not positive. I am still waiting for one local paper to write on what government is doing and the extent we have gone.”
On drugs being applied now and what has been done to achieve this success, Chukwu said: “What has been done is the standard WHO regimen. There is no vaccine brought in, there is no drug that has been proven. What we are doing now is clinical trials for a number of experimental drugs. Basically United States has two patients for clinical trials, so they are supplying their experimental drugs to other countries to do the same. So all these patients have to sign that they are willing to take the drugs, that is why they are called experimental drugs.
“Now in terms of effectiveness we have not done enough yet. We don’t know whether it is effective on human beings or not. Why do I say that? In the U.S., they have two patients, they are giving the same drugs they have and they say they are getting better. But in Nigeria, we have five patients, we didn’t give those drugs and they are home. You get my point. In Spain, they gave somebody Zmapp and the person died. Then in Nigeria, there are people we did not give Zmapp, they died. So it is too early to say whether it has effect. It is like we are drowning and when somebody is drowning he holds on to anything. To the world it is something that holds hope. So don’t we use it?
“So the current treatment is standard all over the world. When there is Ebola Virus Disease, there is the need to isolate, to do barrier medicine and barrier nursing because they need a lot of fluid. It is enough for someone to die because of loss of fluid. You improve nutrition to bolster the patients’ immunity. There are many micronutrients that the person might not be getting, then we supply them. Then electrolytes are very important, and treat any secondary infections. That is what we have been doing.”
When asked further if the country is not applying Zmapp for now, Chukwu said: “We don’t have Zmapp. We don’t have it yet but we have written to them but they have not given us. They have run out of supply.”
Denying knowledge of any Japanese drug being used to cure Ebola, the minister said: “I don’t know about the Japanese drug. I think I will ask the Ministerial Committee because they are the ones evaluating the candidate drugs and so on. But I know about the Canadian drugs. I know about the American one Zmapp. I also know about the experimental vaccine from Canada. I also know about the American experimental vaccine.”
He insisted that the country was “only using the WHO protocol for now.”
On whether Iwu’s claim on bitter kola is being investigated, Chukwu said: “No! That is why Iwu is a member of that committee. He said that it was a study they did not complete since 1999. So probably now they want to continue and complete it.
“So the message for now is that there is no evidence that when somebody has Ebola virus bitter kola treats it. But in the laboratory it has some effect and now he wants to take the research to a logical conclusion.
“So I pray that it will happen during my tenure. For now don’t chew bitter kola if you want to prevent Ebola disease. But if you are just taking it for socials and as part of your diet, there is no problem.”
Asked further if there is any support from the government in terms of developing the bitter kola drug, Chukwu said: “That is why we have a committee. Iwu is working with them. We have already agreed on the way forward.”
Meanwhile, the United States (U.S.) Consul General in Lagos Jeffrey Hawkins has said that an enlightenment campaign was a very important component of the fight against EVD.
During a press briefing on the Ebola outbreak with U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Team Leader, Dr. John Vertefeuille in Lagos yesterday, Hawkins said that the U.S. senior mission personnel had been engaging government officials and community leaders, urging them to spread the message on the deadly impact of the EVD and to take preventive measures.
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