Nigeria Federal Government said on Wednesday that it has formally requested for the experimental drugs being developed by a United States company in collaboration with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the treatment of the Ebola victims.
Professor Onyeabuchi Chukwu, Nigeria’s minister of health told journalist after the weekly meeting of Federal Executive Council that he has been in communication with the director of the US CDC on the possibility of getting the drugs to treat Nigerians already infected by the Ebola disease.
The Ebola disease had so far killed two persons in Nigeria- the American-Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who died in Lagos hospital after he was taken there for treatment on landing in Nigeria and a female nurse who treated him.
Thomas Friedien, Director US CDC had on Sunday confirmed that the American doctor who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone seemed to have improved after being treated with the drug which development is still at the experimental stage.
“We are doing everything possible. This morning, I sent an e-mail to the director of the U.S. Centre for Disease Control because we have been in communication in the last 36 hours by e-mails as well as talking.
“And I asked that we are getting report that the experimental drug seems to be useful.
“It is also possible that we can have access for our own people who are presently being treated under isolation?”
“So, we are making efforts, we are relating with them and we are doing everything possible to ensure that we contain this disease.
Professor Chukwu who confirmed that the Ebola situation in the country is already at an emergency state stage also confirmed that as at Wednesday morning, five Nigerians had contracted the disease and were being treated at an isolation ward in Lagos.
He appealed to Nigerians to cooperate with the authorities to curb the spread of the virus.
-PM News
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