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Nigeria's health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu announced yesterday evening that 5 patients infected with Ebola are nearing full recovery.
His statement read;
EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE IN NIGERIA: UPDATE BY THE MINISTER OF HEALTH
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
Saturday August 16, 2014
As at today, the statistics indicate:
1. Total number of confirmed cases of EVD in Nigeria = 12
2. Number of deaths due to EVD = 4
3. Number of persons under surveillance in Lagos = 189
4. Number of persons under surveillance in Enugu = 6(continue)
As you are aware, the patients under treatment have now been moved to the new 40 bed capacity isolation ward provided by the Lagos State Government.
Additional equipment has also been made available to the new isolation ward by the Federal Government.
At present, 5 of the patients have almost fully recovered.
You will recall that last Thursday, I announced that we were ready to deploy an experimental drug, nano silver, if it was cleared by the National Health Research Ethics Committee. Although, the drug had since last Thursday been made available to the Emergency Operations Centre in Lagos, it had not been administered to any patient because we were awaiting clearance by the National Health Research Ethics Committee.
I regret to inform you that the drug did not meet the requirements of the National Health Research Ethics code. Accordingly, approval for its use was withheld by the National Health Research Ethics Committee.
I wish to inform you, however that other candidate drugs are currently being evaluated by the Treatment Research Group for EVD. As soon as any of the experimental drugs is cleared by the National Health Research Ethics Committee and is made available, we shall include it in the treatment regimen subject to the informed consent of the patient.
The first Nigerian to be diagnosed of EVD, a female doctor, was discharged home this evening.
Thank you
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