NCAA suspends airline’s operations to Nigeria for flying in victim
Further investigations into the case, carried out in conjunction with the Lagos State Government, have revealed that 59 others, including Nigerian Ambassador to Liberia, Chigozie Obi-Nnadozie, had contact with Mr. Patrick Sawyer, the EVD victim who died in Lagos last Thursday.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, at a news conference yesterday in Lagos, said the 59 people had contact with the late Sawyer, a senior diplomat with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who was diagnosed of the EVD on arrival in Nigeria to attend the ECOWAS convention in Calabar.
Idris, at the news conference held in conjunction with Federal Ministry of Health officials, said: “So far, a total of 59 contacts have been registered consisting of 44 hospital contacts (38 healthcare workers and six laboratory staff) and 15 airport contacts, comprising three ECOWAS staff members, driver, liaison and protocol officers, Nigerian Ambassador to Monrovia, two nursing staff and five airport passenger handlers.
“As of the time of this report, 20 contacts had been physically screened of which 50 per cent are type 1 contact and 50 per cent had had type 2 contact. Airline manifest has not been provided by the airline at the time of this report and therefore the precise number of passenger contacts is yet to be ascertained, especially as two flights were involved (Monrovia-Lome and Lome-Lagos).”
Harping on the management, prevention and control of the endemic, Idris said an isolation ward had been designated by the Lagos State Ministry of Health at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba for case management, adding that the designation of three other health facilities was underway.
A total of 100 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was procured by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Federal Ministry of Health and has been distributed to the private hospital and the State Ministry of Health.
WHO also donated 250 PPEs to the NCDC/FMOH. “Adhering strictly to WHO guidelines, the body of the deceased patient was decontaminated using 10 per cent sodium hypochlorite and cremated, with the permission of the government of Liberia.
A cremation urn has been prepared for dispatch to the family. The vehicle that conveyed the remains was also fully decontaminated,” he added.
According to him, although no Nigerian has been infected, all contacts are being actively followed. He said based on investigation carried out so far, the government could assure Nigerians and the global community that as of today only one case of imported Ebola and one death had been recorded in Lagos.
“We call on all Nigerians to be calm and not panic and do hereby assure them that both the federal and state Governments are up in arms to ensure that the virus did not escape and that no Nigerian is infected with this virus,” he stated.
Idris said preliminary laboratory investigation conducted by the NCDC AI virology laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the World-Bank Funded African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) Redeemers’ University, detected viral DNA from Sawyer and that in both, blood and urine samples obtained from the patient were positive for the Pan Filo virus analysis and Ebola Zaire MGB virus strain- specific analysis.
Idris added that samples were also collected for further confirmation at the WHO Collaborating laboratory for Ebola in Dakar. Giving the detail of unfortunate importation of the diseases to Nigeria, Idris said the 40-year-old Liberian victim arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos from Monrovia via Lome on Asky Airline Flight No KP50, on his way to Calabar for the ECOWAS retreat of heads of offices meeting, as a senior ECOWAS official in Liberia.
He explained that his plane was reported to have had a brief stop in Accra and Lome, and the aircraft was changed at Lome, adding that he was also reported to have fallen ill while on board and remained very ill on arrival at the airport in Lagos.
In addition, Sawyer was taken from the airport by ECOWAS protocol officials to a private hospital, First Consultant Medical Centre, Obalende, in Lagos, where he tested positive to EVD.
The commissioner said: “An initial diagnosis of suspected viral haemorrhagic fever was made. He was admitted and investigations were carried and supportive treatment was commenced.
The private hospital immediately notified the state Ministry of Health which also notified the Federal Ministry of Health. The patient however died at about 6.50am on the 25th July 2014.”
Idris explained that the Joint Federal and State Team on the basis of all experiences gathered from the response to this outbreak recommended to mobilise funding for response activities, logistics and supplies; train and orientate health staff on the Ebola outbreak response standards operating procedures and supply laboratory diagnostic supplies or activate the mobile VHF laboratory.
Idris added that other recommendations were to provide adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), organise psychosocial support and provide incentives to health personnel involved in Ebola outbreak response, design key messages in the local language and intensify public enlightenment in the local languages and involve the community in response activities.
He advised Lagos residents to remain calm as government was doing everything possible to prevent the spread of the diseases in the state. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended the airline that flew the late Sawyer into the country.
Its Director General, Benedict Adeyileka, said in Lagos yesterday that the agency took the action to suspend ASKY Airline’s operations to Nigeria with immediate effect in order to protect Nigerians from EVD, which is ravaging some parts of East and Central Africa.
ASky Airline, Ethiopian Airline’s feeder airline with hub in Lome, Togo, is an important player in the West, East and Central Africa operating 80 flights into Lagos and Abuja weekly.
The airline reportedly flew the Liberian who was obviously infected with the virus into Lagos, Nigeria which has created panic and diverted world attention to Nigeria.
Adeyileka said the airline representative could not offer any conclusive or substantial evidence neither did he demonstrate any capacity to be able to prevent a recurrence or possibly ship loading Ebola victims to Nigeria.
The airline’s inability to give the needed assurance, he added, was contrary to the provision of Article 14 of the Chicago Convention,1944, which states that “Each contracting state agrees to take effective measures to prevent the spread by means of air navigation, of cholera, typhus (epidemic),smallpox, yellow fever, plague and such other communicable diseases as the contracting state shall from time to time decide to designate…..”
Spokesman for the aviation regulatory body, Fan Ndubuoke, in a statement, also said top management of the NCAA decided to suspend the airline’s operations instead of risking the lives of Nigerians.
He added that the airline operations were suspended with immediate effect until it could prove that it was capable of adequately screening passengers in all their points of operation, including profiling of each passenger.
Also, Arik Air which had earlier suspended flights to Monrovia and Freetown has been advised to maintain the cessation of flights until is cleared by NCAA.
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