Suspicious Death In Calabar Not Ebola – WHO

By CrossRiverWatch admin

A man who died in the Nigerian city of Calabar did not have Ebola, the World Health Organization said on Friday, after 10 people were quarantined as a precaution.

Cory Couillard, from the WHO African Region, told AFP in an email that the “laboratory investigation for EVD (Ebola Virus Disease) and Lassa fever turned out negative”.

The patient at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital died on Wednesday, the WHO confirmed earlier.

He was reported locally as being a suspected Ebola case, although his symptoms were not specified and his travel history was unknown, it added.

The federal government had sent a delegation to Calabar to join in the investigation of the cause of death of the suspected patient.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Thomas Agan, also told CrossRiverWatch on the phone from Canada that samples had been collected from the patient for further tests in Iruan, Edo state.

The Cross River State government also in a statement issued in Calabar Friday and signed by the Director, Public Health, Cross River State Ministry of Health, Dr Sonny Omini said a patient, who died recently at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), did not die of the virus.

According to the statement, results of a test on the dead patient indicates that Ebola was not the cause of death.

“A sample of blood was obtained from the patient and taken to Irrua Specialist Hospital, Edo State, for a test. The result of the test did not confirm the suspicion or impression that he died of Ebola,” the statement reads in part.

The statement further stated that “there is no incidence of Ebola infection or lassa fever or any other incidence of viral haemorrhagic fever recorded in the state.

“The Government regrets the anxiety and panic caused members of the public due to the wrong reportage of the incident.”

It therefore, urged members of the public to go about their normal businesses without any fear as the state is Ebola free.

Nigeria registered its first case of Ebola in July 2014, when a Liberian man died of Ebola in Lagos, sparking fears of its spread outside West Africa.