29th August, 2014
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Patients admitted in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, UPTH, have hurriedly left the hospital after they learnt that the corpse of the late Dr. Iyke Samuel Enamua who died from Ebola virus after secretly treating an ECOWAS diplomat, was deposited in the morgue of the hospital.
Some concerned staff of the hospital lamented to journalists that the management of the hospital did not warn the mortuary attendants not to accept corpses from outside the hospital before ignorantly allowing the doctor’s corpse to be deposited in the morgue.
A visit to UPTH Friday showed that patients have deserted the hospital because of the fear of contracting the Ebola disease.
At the entrance gates of the two major hospitals in the state: UPTH and Braithwaite Memorial Hospital, BHM, the management of the hospitals have provided scanning equipment for testing the temperatures of patients before granting them access to the hospital.
Governor Chibuike Amaechi in a state broadcast Thursday appealed to the people of the state not to panic as the government had put in place all necessary medical and material equipment to contain the outbreak of Ebola disease.
He said the diplomat that the late doctor treated was still alive and that was an indication that all hopes were not lost.
Dr. Charles Tobin West chairman of Advisory Committee called for caution and advised that fear kills faster that Ebola itself.
In another development, Dr Dan Jumbo, the President of Association of Resident Doctors, UPTH, confirmed that resident doctors were not working in the hospital because the management insisted they had been sacked by the Federal Government; and secondly, the improper depositing of their late colleague in the UPTH morgue poses health hazard to them.