The number of confirmed Ebola cases in Nigeria is now 17, the country’s Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, has disclosed. He made the disclosure yesterday while reading the Communique of the Second Emergency Meeting of the National Council on Health on the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Nigeria.

Giving a summary update of the Ebola Virus Disease in the country as at August 31, Prof. Chukwu told journalists: “The total number of cases of EVD in Nigeria stands at seventeen (17).The total number of cases treated at the isolation ward in Lagos State stands at thirteen (13).The total number of those discharged is seven (7). The total number of deaths among those treated in Lagos is five (5), and the total number currently under treatment in Lagos as two (2) and both patients are stable. The three (3) confirmed cases not treated in Lagos comprise i. a surviving primary contact of the index case (Patrick Sawyer): an ECOWAS Commission staff who became symptomatic, evaded surveillance in Lagos, travelled to Port Harcourt and infected his attending physician. He is currently under quarantine in Lagos at the moment, undergoing further tests to ensure he is totally free from the virus; 2. a private medical practitioner who was infected while treating the ECOWAS Commission staff. He died from EVD and 3. a female patient who was on admission in the same hospital where the late Port Harcourt Doctor was also admitted. She is presently under treatment in the Isolation ward in Rivers State.”

The health minister, who is also chairman of the National Council on Health, reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to control the spread of EVD as a National Health Emergency as declared by President Goodluck Jonathan. He called on Council members and all stakeholders to work together to urgently halt and reverse the trend.

Prof. Onyebuchi pointed out that the strategies for containing the EVD in Nigeria are focused on appropriate information, education and communication; sustaining our surveillance systems; provision and equipping of isolation wards/centres; provision of adequate care for confirmed cases; active and aggressive contact tracing; and reduction in harmful practices that promote the spread of the virus.

The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Health, Dr. Khaliru Alhassan, 19 State Commissioners for Health and the Representative of the Secretary of Health & Human Services, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and the Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. L. N. Awute who is the Secretary of Council. Other participants at the meeting were Directors of Departments and Agencies of Federal Ministry of Health, as well as Military and Para-Military organisations and the Media.

•Photo shows doctors engaged in the war against Ebola.