Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samson Parker, has given an insight to how the dreaded Ebola virus crept into the state and claimed its first victim, Dr. Iyke Samuel Enemuo, a medical doctor.
Giving an update on the ebola virus disease in the state Friday, Parker said the late Enemuo treated a Nigerian diplomat attached to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Oluibukun Koye, who had evaded the surveillance team in Lagos to travel to Port Harcourt.
He declared that Enemuo was aware that Koye had the ebola virus disease (EVD) before treating him at a mushroom hotel in Port Harcourt.
“He (Koye) had received the late Dr. Patrick Sawyer in Lagos. Upon developing the symptom, he confided in a female colleague, called Lillian, who contacted the late Dr. Enemuo. It was after contact was established with Dr. Enemuo that Oluibukun Koye flew to Port Harcourt to see Dr. Enemuo.”
“To conceal his movement, Koye, who had been under surveillance with other people for having primary contact with the late Dr. Sawyer, the Liberian-American who transmuted the Ebola virus into Nigeria, sneaked out of the isolation unit where he was being observed and took a flight to Port Harcourt and switched off his phone so that he cannot be reached or traced should he answer a call.”
The Health Commissioner also disclosed that the number of persons under surveillance in the state has increased from 100 to 160.
“Our contact tracing team is working seriously to make sure we contain the spread of the Ebola virus in Rivers State,” he said.
