The Rivers
State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samson Parker, has explained how the dreaded
Ebola Virus Disease got to Port Harcourt. During a press conference in Port
Harcourt on Friday evening, the commissioner revealed that the late Dr. Samuel
Enemou, who treated Olu Koye, a Nigerian diplomat with the Economic Community
of West African States, was aware that the diplomat was a carrier of the deadly
Ebola virus.
Parker said:
“Olu Koye
had received the late Dr. Patrick Sawyer in Lagos. Upon developing the symptom,
he confided in a female colleague, called Lilian, who contacted the late Dr.
Samuel Enemou. It was after contact was established with Dr. Enemuo that Olu
Koye flew to Port Harcourt to see him.
To conceal
his movement, Koye, who had been quarantined among other people for
having
primary contact with the late Dr. Sawyer, the Liberian-American who transmuted
the Ebola virus into Nigeria, sneaked out of the isolation unit where he was
being observed and took a flight to Port Harcourt and switched off his phone so
that he could not be reached or traced should he answer a call.”
On arrival
in Port Harcourt, he said Koye checked into Mandate Gardens, a local hotel in
the Rumunokoro area in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area. The hotel is within
the Rumunokoro area where Dr. Enemuo’s private health facility, Sam Steel
Clinic is located.
Parker
added:
“From what we have gathered so far, Dr.
Enemuo, knowing that Koye was positive of the Ebola virus took some measures of
precaution to protect himself while treating Koye. Knowing the enormity of what
he was doing, Enemuo upon Koye’s departure for Lagos, poured bleach all over
the room that Koye slept in order to sanitise the place.”
He said the
deceased, after having developed the symptom, approached a colleague for
treatment at Good Heart Hospital along Evo Road in G.R.A. He said Enemuo did
not tell the doctor that was treating him the truth, stressing that he merely
told him that he had fever.
Parker said:
“He lied. He
did not tell the doctor that was treating him his full story. But the doctor, a
nice and conscientious professional, suspected that Enemuo was either hiding
something or was suffering from a strange ailment because he proved negative to
malaria, fever and typhoid fever. To be sure of what he was doing, he spoke to
other very experienced doctors about the strange case he was handling in his
hospital.”
The
commissioner said the doctor treating Enemuo even invited some his colleagues
to come over to his hospital to study Enemuo’s medical history. He said because
the news of the Ebola virus was all everywhere, those he called were afraid to
honour the invitation.
Parker added
that none of them showed up at the hospital where Enemuo was being treated,
stressing that Enemuo’s condition continued to deteriorate until he died after
which body was taken to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.
The
commissioner also declared that the advent of the dreaded Ebola virus in the
state was currently posing a challenge, saying the development was tantamount
to a war time situation. He said the Rivers State governor, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi
Amaechi, had pledged to provide funds to enable the state to procure all
relevant materials as well as the services of medical experts from Nigeria and
abroad to contain the virus.
Parker also
said 60 more people who had secondary contacts with Koye were quarantined last
night
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