Anxiety in Edo community as man dies of suspected Ebola symptoms

There was anxiety at Udo community in Orhiomwon Local Government Council of Edo State, following the death of a middle aged man whom some section of the community alleged that he died of the dreaded Ebola Virus last Sunday.

But some people in the village claimed that the deceased was an epileptic patient and had died after an attack and an Ebola victim.

However, Vanguard learnt that the officials of the Ministry of Health in the state, ran to the community which is about one hour drive from Benin City, to collect the blood sample of the deceased with a view to ascertaining the actual cause of death.

Vanguard was informed that pandemonium broke out when some villagers observed blood in some parts of the body of the deceased and foam. Fearing that he could be suffering from the Ebola virus, the villagers covered their hands with clothes and bundled the sick body into an empty bus and ordered the driver to take the man to a hospital.

But the driver who equally became scared that he might be infected if the patient was actually suffering from the Ebola virus disease, refused to drive to the hospital and decided to bring down the sick body from his bus.

It was during the drama that the man gave up the ghost forcing members of the community to flee their homes.

A source in the community said: “We are scared because we have been watching adverts on TV by the state Ministry of Information telling us to be vigilant of signs like blood and fever. And the man was shivering and we saw blood and foam from his mouth and that was why everybody ran away.”

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. (Mrs.) Aihanuwa Eregie, was unavailable for comments, but an official of the ministry who pleaded anonymity said that they were alerted of the matter “so we immediately sent our officials to rush to the community to get the blood sample of the man who they said was dead already.

“Though we heard he was an epileptic patient, we just want to be sure about the cause of death. His corpse has been isolated and we can only talk more when the result of the test is out.

“You remember that the state government had earlier come out to say we don’t have Ebola case in Edo, so if eventually we receive report of any case we will definitely tell the world because it is a serious matter.”

The state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Louis Odion, has urged the people of the state to remain vigilant and report any case of any persons suspected of being infected by Ebola virus disease.

•Source: Vanguard.