Anxiety as first Ebola suspect emerges in Kwara

The Kwara State Chairman of the Ebola Viral control Committee ,Prof. Sunday Opabola told reporters that the first suspected case in the state is a seven-month old baby who had come with his parents from Ibadan for a visit at Ilorin after one of those taking care of him had returned to Ibadan from Lagos.The baby has been isolated and samples taken to Lagos for testing. He said

By 9 am yesterday, I was called to the ministry of health that a proprietor of a private hospital who is a pediatrician reported a suspected case on admission in his hospital.

The suspected patient is a seven-month old child that came to Ilorin with the mother and she came out with suspicion of malaria and was admitted at Surulere clinic and they started treating him for malaria, that is on the 10th of this month, four days ago. After managing him for two days, there was no improvement, he was referred to a pediatrician.

“After clinical assessment, he apparently saw some symptoms that look like Ebola. These symptoms basically fever, diarrhea, vomiting that were being taken care of before in other hospitals but he now saw that this vomiting consists of blood and that was where he made a report. 

“Now if it were not in this situation we are, I am sure he couldn’t have made any report because some other diseases could have presented these same symptoms, even malaria in children would present something like. Other viral infections, viral hemorrhagic diseases would present like this, Lassa fever and so on, even cholera can present like this but because in this situation we have been at alert and we don’t want to take chances."