Ebola: Dearth of volunteers persist in Lagos despite N60,000 daily pay, insurance

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 class="entry-title posttitle" itemprop="name headline" style="border: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 2819px;"> <span style="font-size: small;">-Sun Newspaper</span></h1> <div id="entryContainer" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="entry entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 6px 0px 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">LAGOS State is facing the problem of shortage of volunteers to help care for the victims of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). In spite of a life insurance scheme and N60, 000 daily allowance being offered by the state government, health workers and volunteers are still not forthcoming.</span></div> <br /> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is coming as the Ebola disease saga in Nigeria took a sinister twist with cases of Ebola virus infection emerging among two spouses of the health workers (primary contacts) that attended to the index (first) case, Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer.</span></div> <div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_460518" style="border: 0px; float: right; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 422px;"> <div style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/unn-students-wage-war-ebola-virus/unn-ebola-pix/" rel="attachment wp-att-460518" style="-webkit-transition: background-color, border-top-color; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, border-top-color; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="*Biochemistry students of UNN staging an awareness campaign on Ebola virus." class="size-full wp-image-460518" height="351" src="http://dvsl3w2q45hb8.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/UNN-Ebola-pix.gif" style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.2s linear, box-shadow; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.247059) 1px 1px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: margin 0.2s linear, box-shadow;" width="412" /></span></a></div> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 8px 0px 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">*Biochemistry students of UNN staging an awareness campaign on Ebola virus.</span></div> </div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Minister for Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, who confirmed the development in an announcement  yesterday in Abuja,  said the new cases are among the secondary contacts who have been under surveillance in Lagos but were quarantined as soon as they developed Ebola symptoms.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Disturbed by the dearth of volunteers, the Lagos State Government has appealed to health workers and volunteers to come forward to join the state’s effort in the battle against the dreaded EVD.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Lagos State Commissioner for Health Dr. Jide Idris, said they were striving to save the lives of confirmed Ebola cases but “our major challenge in this regard is personnel with requisite expertise, hence, our call for volunteers.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We require experts in different medical fields including critical care and infectious diseases and these still need to be trained using the World Health Organisation (WHO) protocol which may require up to five days of committed training before such experts can apply their skills safely without risk to themselves. Our international experts are currently providing this training on site.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is coming on the heels of the donation of 30 body scanners by the United States of America, USA, government to the Nigerian government to check body temperature at the country’s various ports of entry.’’</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Speaking on the two new cases, Onyebuchi said: “The two are spouses of a man and woman who had direct contact with Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, who flew into the country last month with the virus and infected 11 others before he died in July, including the male and female caregiver who both subsequently died of Ebola.’’</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The last two cases bring the total number of confirmed infections in Nigeria, including Sawyer, to 14. This brings to four the total number of EVD patients currently under treatment at the isolation ward of the Ebola Control unit of the Mainland Hospital, Lagos.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The number of deaths still remains five while the number of those successfully managed and discharged also stands at five,” Chukwu said, noting that Federal Government, is working with  the Lagos State government and other partners, to maintain vigilance and continue to strengthen containment of the dreaded Ebola virus.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Along with Sawyer, the Lead Consultant at First Consultants Medical Centre, Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, one other female doctor, a nurse, and an official of the ECOWAS office in Lagos have so far died of Ebola in Nigeria.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was not immediately clear if the newly confirmed cases are spouses of primary contacts who are dead or alive even though Chukwu had earlier in the week, hinted that with a good number of secondary contacts yet to complete the 21-day incubation period, the possibility of more cases of Ebola could not be entirely ruled out.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He reassured the global community that the country would not relent until the very last case of the disease is eradicated.The Federal Government, Chukwu said, is working with the Lagos State government and other partners, to maintain vigilance and continue to strengthen containment.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Federal Government, last Thursday approved the release of N200 million to Lagos State to fight the disease.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">However, the emergence of Ebola infected secondary contacts is unprecedented and heightens fears about the possibility of the disease spreading beyond expectations.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It also raises questions about the validity of assurances earlier given about the general low risk of exposure to the index case alleged to have been taken to hospital immediately on arrival at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reaching all contacts</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Thursday, the Lagos state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris said a total of 213 people were  currently under surveillance as part of efforts to monitor people who may have been potentially exposed to Ebola and that all persons certified negative have been freed.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Ebola  virus runs a maximum of 21 days and aside the treatment for those who have full blown cases, the more important work is tracking all those who have had primary and secondary contact.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Reaching all contacts is believed to be crucial towards gaining control over the virus, according to the World Health Organisation, which expressed cautious optimism when it noted that it was hopeful over the situation in Nigeria because all the confirmed cases came from a single chain of transmission.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Plans underway to honour Dr Adedevoh — </span><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">FG</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Arrangements are being made by the federal government to honour Dr Stella Ameyo Adadevoh for the sacrifice she made in ensuring that Ebola did not spread to other parts of the country, the Minister of Health, Prof. Chukwu said yesterday in Abuja yesterday when he received the Association of Private Medical Practitioners in his office.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Chukwu who commended the efforts of private medical practitioners in the country especially the role played by the First Consultant Hospital and the late Dr Adadevoh which he described as very crucial in ensuring that the virus do not spread like in other countries.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said that the role of private medical practitioners have become sacrosanct, adding; “particularly now when public medical practitioners,  doctors are on strike.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“You have lost one of your colleague,  Dr Adadevoh,  we mourn her and all Nigerians who lost their lives to Ebola. We will ensure that her bravery,  courage and patriotism will not go unnoticed.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">NAS cautions against stigma, panic</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">President of the Nigeria Academy of Science, Prof Oyewale Tomori, cautioned against panic and stigmatizing of victims.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In a statement, Tomori said: “As the foremost independent scientific body in the country, and based on available evidence from the 22 other outbreaks of EVD that have occurred in the East and Central Africa in the past, the Academy wishes to state that there is absolutely no need for panic, but that the public should fully cooperate with the appointed health authorities. “The EVD is a deadly disease but patients stand a good chance of survival if taken in early for supportive management. The Nigerian record of the number of patients already discharged from the Ebola Treatment Centre strongly supports this. It is important to point out that these persons were discharged after having been certified virus-free by the laboratories at LUTH and Redeemers University.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">MDCAN commends FG</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Meanwhile the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, has commended the Government  over its response to the Ebola disease. It also called on Nigerian communities to cooperate with the government to locate treatment centres in any area of choice by the Ministries of Health.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rising from a meeting of its Executive Committee, MDCAN in a statement, signed by the President, Dr Steven Oluwole also called for better protection for the health personnel in the forefront of the fight against the disease.</span></div> </div> </div> </div>

Ebola: Dearth of volunteers persist in Lagos despite N60,000 daily pay, insurance

-Sun Newspaper LAGOS State is facing the problem of shortage of volunteers to help care for the victims of the deadly Ebola Virus Di...

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Nigerian Youths Volunteers in their Numbers To Help Fight Ebola OutBreak

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height: 35px; margin: -30px 0px 0px; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 44px; text-decoration: none; top: 50%; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; width: 35px; z-index: 10;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); line-height: normal;">Next</span></span></a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="blocks col-4" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 25px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 341px;"> <article class="large" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"></article></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The people are responding to an appeal by the Lagos State Government for volun­teers to help in the war against the disease.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sunday Sun </i>visited the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre located within the Fed­eral Neuro-Psychiatric Hospi­tal, Yaba, Lagos, there was a large turn-out of volunteers.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our reporters observed that as the volunteers poured in, they were attended to every 30 minutes to one hour. During this time, they were usually in groups of five to 10 people.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At such intervals, a mid­dle-aged female official would come out and chat with the volunteers, while also asking questions to test their knowl­edge and preparedness for the task.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At one of the sessions, the official turned to one of the volunteers, a man in his 40s, and asked him the question he was not prepared for. “Have you told your wife?” and he mumbled something to her.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then the woman added, “It is just because we don’t want a situation where when you go home now, your family will start running away from you. And when other people hear it, they will also begin to run from you. So, you have to carry your family along,” she explained.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After the conversation, she would then hand them a one-page form to fill. In most cases, the volunteers dis­persed after that exercise. But in some instances, you could still see some of them hanging around after filling their forms.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An official of the centre who asked not to be named, told <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sunday Sun </i>that the response from the people was heart­warming, stating that it was a show of the African spirit of being one’s brother’s keeper.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The source assured the re­porters that they were getting the right kind of volunteers, saying that there were no stringent conditions for ac­cepting volunteers, except that they had to be willing and able to work.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In some cases, the officials had to advise a volunteer to take on a different task other than the one he or she applied for, depending on where they adjudged the volunteer’s skills could be better utilised.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some of the volunteers, the source said would work at the clinical section (among this group were mainly doctors and nurses), while some others would work at social mobilization (to educate people about Ebola). Yet some others, he said, would engage in contact tracing and screen­ing at points of entry.</span></div> <div> <br /></div> </div>

Nigerian Youths Volunteers in their Numbers To Help Fight Ebola OutBreak

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