Ebola: Late doctor buried in PH........So sad

Rivers State Government said on Thursday that the remains of the late Dr. Iyke Enemuo, who died of the Ebola virus, had been buried in Port Harcourt according to the requirement of the World Health Organisation.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sampson Parker, who disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Port Harcourt, explained that Enemuo was buried on Wednesday alongside the woman that shared the same hospital ward with him.

It will be recalled that the woman and Enemuo’s younger sister, Chinyere, who recently tested positive to the Ebola virus, had been on admission at the Ebola Isolation Unit in Emohua Local Government Area.

Parker pointed out that the woman, who died at the treatment centre in the state, was at the Good Heart Hospital in Port Harcourt as a result of a cardiac problem.

He said, “Dr. Enemuo has been interred; the woman that died has been interred. It is not a ceremony; it was done according to WHO protocols. They were interred yesterday in Port Harcourt.

“I told you the last time that none of the bodies would leave Port Harcourt and the Ministry of Health and WHO have arranged and they have been interred according to WHO protocol.

Parker dismissed speculations in some quarters that the wife of the late Enemuo had died, saying, “She (late Dr. Enemuo’s wife) is stable and in fact, doing well.”

He stated that the Ebola virus exported into the Rivers by Olu-Ibukun Koye, a Nigerian protocol officer with the Economic Community of West African States, was being effectively managed by the state government.

The commissioner specifically said about 98 percent of people suspected to have had contact with the late Enemuo had been covered.
Disclosing that another woman was admitted at the isolation treatment centre at Oduoha in Emeoha Local Government Area, Parker said the result of the test conducted on her would be out Thursday afternoon.

“Everything is going on smoothly and fine. We have achieved 98 percent coverage of contacts. The patients we have at the treatment centre are doing well. The last time, I told you that there was a positive patient there. There is one other suspect there; it is what we call a probable patient and we are waiting for the test result to come out,” he added.

On the woman that was in the same ward at the Good Heart Hospital with Dr. Enemuo, the commissioner said, “Unfortunately, we lost a patient here at the treatment centre. She is the lady that was at the Good Heart Hospital with Dr. Enemuo. We cannot say she died as a result of complications of Ebola.

“Don’t forget that there was a reason she went to that hospital; she was a cardiac patient and she went into what we call cardiogenic shock.

Her condition was complicated by Ebola. We regret to say that and we also state that it also underscores why we were saying that people should come to the hospital early.”

He, however, confirmed that only four cases had been proven to be positive to the Ebola virus in Rivers State, identifying them as Enemou; his wife; his younger sister and the woman who was admitted at the same hospital with the late doctor.