yesterday fear gripped students and staff of Obafemi Awolowo University,on Tuesday over a report that a patient on admission at the school Health Centre and was a suspected of having Ebola Virus Disease victim.
However the management of the school initially denied the allegation, but the Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Temitope Ilori, said the sick student had confessed tht she had contact with the late Port Harcourt doctor, who died of the virs after he secretly treated an infected ECOWAS diplomat, Olu-Ibukun Koye, in a hotel in the Rivers . The commissioner said the female student had been put in the isolation ward.
“I was told that a student of the OAU who had contact with the doctor who died of the Ebola virus in Port Harcourt walked into the health centre when she was sick. withness She was said to have told doctors at the health centre that she had contact with the late doctor and she was put under surveillance but she said she tested negative that very time
After the studet return to school to continue her studies and was sick again. She walked to the health centre and told doctors everything about her contact with the doctor. Her blood sample has been taken for another test in Lagos and we are awaiting the result. We pray she is not positive but she has been isolated at the health centre.”
When PUNCH's correspondents visited the hospital on Tuesday, it was observed that health officials were disinfecting the of the medical centre and more attention was paid to places where patients sit before being attended to. It was also observed that top officials of the hospital held an emergency meeting after testing the suspected patient, who was said to have been on admission in the hospital since Monday.
Before the confirmation by the commissioner, also the Public Relations Officer of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile Ife, Mr. Olu Bello, denied the report that a suspected Ebola virus patient had been admitted to the hospital. Bello said he also heard that a student of the OAU, who returned from Port Harcourt, was down with the virus but he said the hospital did not have any case of Ebola.
“There is no case of Ebola at the OAUTHC. Nothing like that; I also heard something like that but such rumour has been causing unnecessary tension among the people but it is not true.”
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the university, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, said the university would make its findings known to the public later Tuesday night.
“It is a suspicion; we don’t know yet. We will make our position on it known tonight. We are still working; we are in the office now.”
Olanrewaju later told The Punch that the ailing student had been moved to Lagos.
