The most senior doctor, a female consultant physician, who participated in the management of the first Ebola patient in Nigeria, Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, has died.
Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, announced the death on Tuesday evening.
Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh, 58, a Senior Consultant and Endocrinologist, had unknowingly contracted the disease in the process of treating the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who was the index patient of Ebola in Nigeria. Sawyer died in late July.
With the unfortunate development, the total number of Ebola Virus related deaths in Nigeria now stands at five.
A total of five infected persons have been discharged after they tested negative to the virus after treatment.
According to the Minister, the other two patients currently under treatment in the isolation wards are stable and are being taken care of.
Since the outbreak of the disease early this year, at least 1,000 deaths have been recorded, most of which occurred in West Africa.
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) gave approval for the use of untested drugs in the treatment of Ebola patients, in an attempt to contain the disease it said was vastly underestimated. It said: “It is a public health emergency of international concern”.
WHO also stressed that extraordinary measures were needed to contain the disease.
The Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, declared the outbreak of the disease a National Emergency and had approved an intervention fund of 1.9 billion Naira to contain the spread.
