Five Nigerian Patients Recovering From Deadly Ebola, Health Minister

Five of the Nigerian patients being treated for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) have almost fully recovered, Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu said in a press statement Sunday.

In addition, a female nurse was discharged this evening. Professor Onyebuchi confirmed that nano silver, an experimental drug he had announced on Thursday would be deployed for treatment if cleared by the National Health Research Ethics Committee (NHREC) had failed to meet the required standards and would not be put into use.

Giving the statistics as of yesterday, August 16, he said the total number of confirmed cases in the country was 12, of which four have died. The number of persons under surveillance in Lagos is 189, and six in Enugu.

He also announced that the patients under treatment have been moved to a new 40 bed capacity isolation ward provided by the Lagos State Government, and that the federal government has provided additional equipment for facility.

With reference to nano silver, he said that other candidate drugs are now being evaluated by the Treatment Research Group for treatment of the disease.

“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 Minister said.