Lagos State government on Tuesday debunked the rumour making
the rounds in the country that there are fresh cases of the deadly Ebola Virus
Disease (EVD) in the state.
Speaking at a joint news conference held at the Ministry of
Health, Government Secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja, the state commissioner for
Health, Dr. Jide Idris, traced the rumour to 9th April, when there was a rumour
in the social media on the return of EVD to Nigeria which killed three and
infected 12 other persons.
Idris, flanked by the commissioner for information and
strategy, Aderemi Ibirogba and his special duties counterpart, Dr Wale Ahmed,
said contrary to messages being circulated on the social media, there is no
fresh case of Ebola outbreak in the state and the country.
He said findings revealed that the EVD rumour emanated from
two different websites, explaining that the government swung into action to
verify the source, viability of the rumour and its author, and embarked on
social media campaign to debunk the news on its facebook site.
The commissioner identified the websites spreading the rumour
as“www.mercyjblog.com/2015/04/breaking-iebola-return-to-nigeriaiafter.html and
http://www.naijabadoo.com.”
He further explained that the second rumour concerning two
Chinese visitors from Sierra Leone was posted on twitter @iChexo on 12th April,
claiming that the two Chinese died of EVD at the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital (LUTH) the same day.
Idris said investigation carried out at LUTH confirmed that the
rumour is completely untrue.
He said, “We believe that the author of these materials
simply wanted to generate traffic to their websites which would appear
successfully achieved. We wish to assure you that health workers have continued
to maintain a high index of suspicion of Ebola Virus Disease and other Viral
Haemorrhagic Fevers.
“The operations and surveillance activities of the Ebola
Emergency Operations Centre (EEOC) have continued despite the containment of
the EVD and the declaration of Nigeria as Ebola-free by WHO in 2014.”
Idris added that the activities of the EEOC were still going
on, such as screening of passengers at the point of entry, enhanced
surveillance for EVD in all councils in the state, social mobilisation and
communication activities at the community and council levels, training on
enhanced EVD surveillance for Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers,
community informants, among others.
He pointed out that those at the highest risk included health
workers, families and friends of infected persons in the course of feeding,
holding and caring for them.
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