Ebola Confirmed In Port Harcourt - 1 Dead, 2 Infected And 70 Under Surveillance

It was reported yesterday that a patient suspected to be infected with the dreaded Ebola virus had died in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. And despite denials by Rivers state health commissioner, Sampson Parker at a press conference yesterday, insisting the victim did not die of Ebola, but fever and diarrhoea, new reports confirm it was Ebola.

Nigeria's Health Minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu confirmed that the dead man was a PH doctor named Ikye Enemoah, and he died on Friday Aug. 22nd after treating a diplomat who had direct contact with Patrick Sawyer. He said laboratory analysis on his corpse showed he died from Ebola.

"Following the report of his death by the doctor's widow the next day, the case had been thoroughly investigated and laboratory analysis showed that this doctor died from EVD (Ebola Virus Disease)." 

He also confirmed to reporters that two people in Port Harcourt have contracted the Ebola disease, the doctor's wife and the diplomat he treated. The wife has been quarantined and the diplomat under surveillance.


An official of the Rivers state Government also confirmed that one patient has indeed died of the Ebola Virus Disease in PH. The official, who asked not to be named because she was not authorized to speak with journalists, said,

“Forget yesterday’s press conference, Ebola is in Port Harcourt, and someone has died. We are now scrambling to track everybody who was in contact with him.”

The doctor’s hospital, Good Heart Hospital, as well as the hotel where he treated the diplomat, have been shut down.

As of today, 28th of August, 70 people in Port Harcourt who had primary and secondary contacts with the doctor and the hospital where he worked have now been put under surveillance in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly virus in the city.

This development is a set back to Nigeria’s effort to contain the deadly virus. On Tuesday, the Minister of Health had announced that the country had succeeded in halting the spread of the virus in the country.