Meet The Medical Team That Saved Nigerians, Kept Ebola Away!

Posted by: brook on October 23, 2014

Meet some of the medical team that treated the index #Ebola case in Nigeria. In total, nine of them got infected with the virus; four of their colleagues passed away. Photo: WHO/A. Esiebo

Nigeria remains one of the best practice countries with regards to how Ebola can be contained and stopped from exploding into the community. And most of that work boils down to the work of these doctors and nurses of First Consultant Hospital Lagos.

 They were caught unprepared, but their quick initiative meant that Patrick Sawyer did not get back into the population of Lagos or Calabar to spread further infection. Among the four that died are Dr. Ameyo Adedevoh and Nurse Justina Ejelonu, and among the ones that survived are Dr. Ada.

WHO shared the picture on the FB page as a way to celebrate Nigeria becoming Ebola Free. See more pictures below of those who worked to stop the deadly virus.

On 20 October, WHO officially declared Nigeria free of #Ebola virus transmission. This is a spectacular success story that shows that Ebola can be contained http://goo.gl/AMTL1s

Photo: WHO/A. Esiebo

With assistance from WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Global) and other partners, government health officials reached 100% of known #Ebola contacts in Lagos and 99.8% at the second outbreak site, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s oil hub.
Photo: WHO/A. Esiebo

The Nigerian response to the #Ebola outbreak was greatly aided by the rapid utilization of a national public institution (NCDC) and the prompt establishment of an Emergency Operations Centre (photo), supported by the Disease Prevention and Control Cluster within the WHO country office. In a shared space, all partners worked together.
Photo: WHO/A. Esiebo

House-to-house, street-to-street information campaigns, messages on local radio stations, in local dialects, all were used to explain the level of risk that #Ebola posed, important for effective personal preventive measures and hygiene.

Photo: WHO/A. Esiebo

 The #Ebola awareness campaigns were supported by social mobilization experts from the Nigerian Government, UNICEF, CDC and Médecins sans Frontières, while the staff from the WHO Nigeria office, the Regional Office for Africa and headquarters boosted outbreak investigation, risk assessment, contact tracing and clinical care.

Photo: Joint poster by the Nigerian Government, WHO, CDC, UNICEF and MSF