Ebola: Rivers hunts for 60 secondary contacts

• Panicky oil firms raise health, safety investment

The Rivers State Government has begun the search for 60 secondary contacts of the late Dr. Iyke Enemuo, the first person to die in the state of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
The late Enemuo, who died on August 22, contracted the disease from an official of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) who fled a quarantined centre in Lagos for Port Harcourt, after he had got the disease from the index case, the late Liberian-American diplomat, Mr. Patrick Sawyer.
The outbreak of the disease in the state has forced oil companies, with headquarters in the state, to jack up their health and safety investments in a bid to protect their workforce. Giving update on the epidemic in the state, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samson Parker, told reporters yesterday in Port Harcourt that the authorities were seeking means to get the locations of the 60 secondary contacts in order to place them under quarantine.

He appealed to the 60 secondary contacts that ”are yet to be located to come out and report themselves to the Rivers State Government’s medical team as quickly as possible.” He added: “For now, we are concentrating on these names that we have found while work is going on to locate new persons that may have had secondary contact with Dr. Enemou. We are currently tracing them so that we can capture them.”
According to him, three persons out of the 50 people classified as high risk contacts and are currently placed under observation have been quarantined at the Ebola Isolation Unit, at Edoha, in Emohua Local Government Area.
Parker said the three persons: a doctor and pharmacist who work at Sam Steel Clinic, and a female patient that was treated at the clinic, had been taken to the quarantine centre for closer examination and observation by a team of medical experts. “I maintain that Sam Steel Clinic, Good Heart Hospital and the hotel where the diplomat, Olu Ibikunle Koye, lodged have been deactivated and decontaminated and now ready for use.
These places are now safe for use,” he added. He said that 50 out of about 200 people under surveillance are categorised as high risk having primarily contacted Enemuo. The commissioner said Enemou died in a car while been rushed from Good Heart Clinic to another hospital in Port Harcourt and the doctor that treated the deceased, the driver and those that attended to the late doctor were under observation. Parker said people were not willing to turn themselves in “because of the stigma associated with the virus,” adding: “Although we have identified about 200 people, we are yet to be in touch with about 60 of them. But 50 high risk contacts have been identified.”
He also said three persons who ran away to Abia, Imo and Akwa Ibom states, had been placed under surveillance after they returned to Port Harcourt. Meanwhile, the outbreak of the disease in Port Harcourt has set jitters down the spine of the International Oil companies (IOCs) and their local counterparts, New Telegraph has gathered. Port Harcourt lies at the heart of Nigeria’s two million barrels per day oil industry, Africa’s biggest, and is a hub for expatriate workers in major IOCs. Investigations by New Telegraph showed that the oil companies have increased their investments in the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) by about 150 per cent in response to the outbreak. A management staff of one of the IOCs said his company had increased attention and investment HSE.
“Do not forget that the NNPC clinic in Lagos was affected,’ he said, adding that when “we heard the news of outbreak in Port Harcourt, the management decision was to immediately call on the chief medical doctor at our staff clinic and the budget he brought was swiftly approved. “Aside this, the security personnel have been equipped with needed gadget to check temperature of staff and visitors before they could be allowed entry into our premises.” Although he refused to mention the amount approved for the new project, he said: “It is about 150 per cent increase from the original budget for HSE.”
Also, Chief Executive Officer of one the indigenous companies with operation base in Port Harcourt said his company had also increased investment on health and safety. “Of course, we have increased our spending on HSE and every responsible company will do that. The fear of Ebola is real here and everybody is trying to be more careful with health,” he said.
It was not immediately clear what impact the outbreak of Ebola would have on oil operations. The majors operating in Nigeria have historically been comfortable with a fair degree of risk in the oil producing Niger Delta, including attacks on oil installations and rampant kidnapping of expatriates.
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