Abia State Government says it would declare a manhunt to fish out all suspected Ebola patients that may have sneaked into the State from the neighbouring Rivers State.
Commissioner for Health, Mr. Okechukwu Ogah, who stated this in an exclusive interview with our Correspondent in Umuahia, said he would liaise with his Rivers State counterpart to get the names of people suspected to have had contacts with the late Dr. Iyke Enemuo and later fled the state .
He said when obtained, such names would be made public so that members of the public would help government in tracking them down to avoid spreading the virus to residents of the state.
Ogah however cautioned against politicising the pandemic following some media reports that Chinyere, the sister of the late Enemuo fled to Abia after the death of her brother before she was tracked down and bundled back to PortHarcourt where she is currently quarantined. [eap_ad_2] He said he never saw Chinyere in Abia but noted that government was not taking chances as it had since stepped up public awareness and sensitization on how to contain the Ebola virus.
The Commissioner appealed to church leaders, traditional rulers, healing homes, landlords, tenants, and other members of the public to volunteer information about any one suspected to have sneaked into Abia from Ebola infested states.
He said: “We will work with neighbouring states to track down the 50 people that were said to have fled from Rivers State and put them on surveillance. We need to work together to rid Nigeria of Ebola; and if there is anybody hiding in Abia we will ask for their names and announce them on air for the public to help us track them.”
Ogah who expressed joy that so far no known case of Ebola had been established in Abia State said that apart from intensive awareness campaign against the pandemic, government had fortified all two isolation centres set up to handle likely patients in the eventuality of its out break in the state.[eap_ad_3]
