Panic -- Ebola Currently Abuja

The dreaded Ebo­la Virus Disease (EVD) which has claimed almost 1000 lives in some West African coun­tries, including Nigeria appeared to have final­ly arrived the nation’s capital, Abuja.
A senior health staff of the FCT administration who spoke to our reporter in Abu­ja last night on the condition of anonymity, said a patient has been isolated at the Garki Hospital in Abuja.
Although he could not cat­egorically state if the patient is a career of the disease, he however said the patient has shown all the signs of Ebola virus.
The senior health official further revealed that samples of the patient’s blood have been taken and currently be­ing tes
ted in the laboratory to ascertain the true position.
According to him, the pa­tient came from Lagos yes­terday and is suspected to be among those who came in contact with the Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer who brought the virus to Nigeria.
As at the time of filing this report, details of the condi­tion of the unnamed patient were still sketchy. He has however been isolated in or­der to avoid further spread of the virus.
“I just got back from the hospital and this Ebola virus has finally entered Abuja. I am very sad and only God knows how we are going to manage this crisis in Abuja if this thing goes wild.
“We have taken the sample of the patient’s blood and the results are not yet out. But all the signs show that he is a carrier of EVD. We have isolated him and he is being closely monitored.
“From what we gathered, the patient came from La­gos and he is suspected to be among those who came in contact with that Liberian man that died in Lagos last week. We do not even know how many people he has come in contact with.
“People need to be more careful now. Be careful who you shake, where you eat and avoid public gatherings. For now, I think that is what we need to do. For offices in FCT, I suggest that they make hand washing soaps avail­able in their offices,” the se­nior FCT official told Satur­day Sun. At the moment, the FCT administration appears not to be ready to manage the scourge. There has not been form of awareness campaign from the Health and Social Services Secretariat of the FCT administration.
The only sensitisation workshop conducted for doctors by the executive secretary of FCT Primary Healthcare Board, Dr Rilwan Mohammed appeared to be the one so far.