On this day in 2014: Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, who treated a Liberian victim of Ebola, contracted the viral disease. She was part of a team that attended to Liberian-American civil servant who collapsed on arrival at Lagos airport.
Patrick Sawyer, who worked for Liberia’s Finance Ministry, was credited with importing Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) to Nigeria, contracted the virus from his sister before he traveled to Lagos for a meeting of West African officials. He landed in Lagos on July from Monrovia after switching planes in Togo’s capital Lome. He collapsed at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos on Sunday July 20, and was hospitalized at First Consultant Medical Centre, Obalende Lagos, where Dr. Stella Adadevoh worked as a medical practitioner. However, Sawyer died in quarantine on July 25, 2014.
Dr. Adadevoh is regarded as a great icon to the nation. One can dread to imagine what would have happened in Lagos, and indeed Nigeria in entirety, had the index case not been taken to First Consultant Hospital where Dr. Stella worked. Her foresight and effective management of that case probably saved our collective bacon.
Also on this day in 2003;The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a pan West Africa economic organisation, deployed its peacekeeping forces in war-torn Liberia in the hope to end more than two months of fighting between government forces and rebels, and allow food and medicine to enter Monrovia. 200 Nigerian troops were the first to arrive at the Liberian airport as part of ECOWAS’ plan to deploy about 3,250 West African soldiers in Liberia. There were also American forces offshore with three warships waiting to move in if necessary.
