18th Aug 2014 Despite the high mortality rate of the deadly Ebola disease, records show that about 10 per cent of infected victims of the virus have survived the attack so far.
Reports have reached us that one of the doctors infected in Lagos by the primary source of Ebola in Nigeria, Patrick Sawyer, has fully recovered from the disease and has been discharged from isolation on Saturday. The federal government has decided to protect the identity of the said doctor by withholding her name from the public.
Unfortunately the Federal Government has declared that the experimental drug produced by a Nigerian in diaspora, Nano Silver, does not meet the requirements of the National Health Research ethics code, hence it is not allowed to be administered to Ebola infected patients. This can only mean that the discharged doctor and other patients recovering from the infection are simply lucky to be amongst the few whose immune systems are able to defeat the virus with minimal care.
There have been 12 known cases of Ebola in Nigeria so far, 4 of them having died of the disease while the remaining 8 are still alive. 4 of those alive – including the female doctor who was discharged – have been recovering fast.
In the meantime, 189 people are placed under surveillance in Lagos State and another 6 in Enugu State as they undergo the 21 day incubation period of the diseases.
On the other hand, in Liberia, which has the highest cases of Ebola so far, three health care workers have been administered with ZMapp, the American experimental drug that saw improvement in two American doctors who were first administered with it.
The three lucky health care workers are Liberian doctors Zukunis Ireland and Abrahim Borbor and Nigerian doctor Aroh Cosmos Izchukwu.
Only 10 to 12 doses of ZMapp have been created, hence the need for priority access.