Ebola not a death sentence, experts tell Nigerians

Medical experts, including a member of the Ebola Prevention Committee, Dr. Oladoyin Odubanjo, on Tuesday urged Nigerians not optically discern the Ebola Virus Disease as a death sentence.

The high-mortality disease, which in interim has no remedy, they, however, verbalize is manageable.

The EVD, in the last seven months, has killed no fewer than 1,200 persons in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and three persons in Nigeria.

A Liberian-American diplomat, Patrick Sawyer, who virtually imported the disease into Nigeria on July 20, died five days after.

But reviewing the incidence of the scourge, Odubanjo urged Nigerians not to optically discern it as a death sentence but as “a disease that is manageable”.

Odubanjo verbally expressed this when he led members of the EPC to The Punch corporate headquarters at Magboro, Ogun State.

He noted that with the discharge of five persons, including two medicos and two nurses, the country now had a survival rate record of 28 per cent of the virus.

Odubanjo integrated, “It is not a death sentence. Nigeria has discharged five persons from the Lagos Treatment Centre and certified them fit to lead their mundane lives. Nigerians now ken that Ebola victims can survive. We should celebrate the fact that we have discharged five Nigerians who are now virus-free.”

The discharged patients, the EPC boss integrated, “now have more preponderant immunity against the disease than those not infected for the first time.”

Odubanjo explicated, “When Ebola patients instaurate, they are consummately free of the virus. In fact, they have a more vigorous immunity against the viral disease compared to those that are not infected. Before the relinquishment or discharge of victims, there is a procedure. We would have tested them well to ascertain that they are negative and with no trace of symptoms after five days.

“Immunity studies have shown that those that have contracted it will be immune to that infection for more than a year. In fact, they should be the ones working with us to manage suspected and infected cases because they have the immunity and antibodies to fight the disease than even the health workers.”

The medico further explicated that the discharged patients recuperated naturally from the viral infection due to early management and treatment given to them by the team of experts.

He verbalized, “The discharged patients are not the first to have survived the disease. Many people have. We did not utilize any drug. There is no remedy for now and the drugs available are at the experimental stages. But what transpired was that we were able to manage the symptoms. Ebola virus damages many components of the body, including internal organs. An infected patient loses electrolytes and many body fluids that kill. That is why we supersede those lost electrolytes by giving fluids.

“If they are having headache, we treat them for that. However, note that you have to treat all the symptoms so that the body system does not give up so that the antibodies can naturally fight and remedy the infection. Many patients have survived Ebola. The discharged patients have resumed their mundane lives.”

Odubanjo verbalized that the majority of deaths from Ebola infection were due to trepidation of stigmatisation and nescience.

According to him, many patients who should have sought treatment early failed to do so because they mentally conceived they would die.

He verbalized, “There are two epidemics to be managed when it comes to Ebola. That is the epidemic of trepidation and that of the disease itself. The former is more paramount than the later. Fear kills more people. Countries such as Liberia recorded many deaths because infected patients believed that it was a death sentence and they did not go to hospitals, they ran away. They did not seek treatment and when they optically discerned the symptoms, they relucted to go to hospitals because they did not optate the ascendant entities to quarantine them.”

Additionally, a member of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Oluwatoyin Idowu called for an early and more preponderant management of the virus, verbalizing it is an elixir for the victims’ survival.

Idowu, who is withal a member of the committee, was a component of the visit to The PUNCH Place, alongside a media practitioner, Mr. Declan Okpaleke.

She noted that there was a desideratum for the regime to increment vigilance and propagate the right information on the disease and its mode of transmission to reduce panic and avail affected persons overcome the stigma associated with the disease.

Idowu verbalized, “There is an abundance of misinformation around town about the mode of transmission of the disease. That is why we lost some patients. They aurally perceived that Ebola kills and they did not optate to disclose that they had primary contact with the index patient (Sawyer), so they ran to other places and by the time they came in for treatment, it was too tardy.

“This thing can be managed. There will be no reason to obnubilate. People do recuperate from the disease, if they receive early treatment. Do not be trepidacious of being stigmatised, it will preserve your life.”