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Thursday, 16 April 2015

No Fresh Ebola Cases In Lagos – LASG


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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