We’re Taking Care Of Ebola-Related Cases – Fashola

“If you come in from a particular place, you can’t go out from there and you need to end up in a place where you can be washed down and taken out and that training takes anything from five days to seven days to achieve. So even if we had all the full compliments of doctors signing on today. It is risky to put them inside that place without first training them, so people must understand this,” he stated.

Fashola said why it appeared to the concerned relatives that nothing was being done was also because the state was still building up capacity as there is water, there is power in the facility and that the facility is better off today in terms of capacity than it was ten days ago.

“I hope that puts some context into those complaints. It is a complaint that comes out of concern and empathy, but it is a complaint that does not focus on reality of what is going on,” he stressed.
Also speaking on the N1.9Billion purportedly released by the President to tackle the Ebola issue, Fashola said though he believes that the President has approved some money but that the State has not received any money to that effect.

He added that what the state has been doing is to work with its resources, maintaining that all the isolation units, the conversion and everything has been by personnel from Lagos who are working with officials of the Federal Health facility in the state.

Fashola, however, underscored that what is really needed at this stage was not solely a question of funds but one that concerns a personnel issue, a system issue, a control issue as well a knowledge issue, saying it is only when all of that have been put into place that one can begin to say how much it would cost.

“So it is not money issue and from what I get, it is not the type of money that we can’t afford but every help from the Federal Government would be useful. I think what to take away from this is not the money but the fact that even the President has shown sufficient concern to call all the 36 States, their Governors and commissioners for health to get a full briefing of the risks, the process and the prognosis for the future.

“I think that is more important. What we need more is the personnel, knowledgeable people who can join that team and contribute their quota,” he added.

The governor identified a silver lining in the fact that so far all the unfortunate deaths that have been recorded were all traceable to the original case and that it shows that a lot of work has been done in tracking everybody that is likely to have had contact with the index case.

He reiterated that when members of the public sees or hear reports of about 170 people on the Ebola list, such people are not sick but people that are being monitored to ensure that if they show signs, they can quickly be brought in and treated.

“I learnt that about 61 people on the watch list have been cleared. So what we must do is to continue to ensure that where people show signs of illness, they come in early so that we can continue to rehydrate them, we can continue to give them electrolyte balance so that their nervous system don’t go into shock and wherever it is necessary to provide antibiotics support. And their body can fight the virus which will in the event last not longer than 21 days”.

“So apart from treatment which is for those who have full blown cases and who are showing signs of illness, the more important work lies in tracking those who have had contacts with them to ensure that we can ring fence how far the virus has gone with them. It is when you have ring fenced that we can say we have control and from that place we can claw back to zero,” he reiterated.