Relatives, colleagues: Lagos Ebola patients neglected and critically ill

Some relatives and concerned colleagues of Ebola patients being treated at the Lagos Isolation center have cried out on what they termed the poor living condition of the victims.

At a press conference
held yesterday in Ikoyi, Lagos, some medical practitioners and colleagues of the female medical doctor confirmed to have contracted the virus while attending to late Patrick Sawyer, said the living condition of the victims are poor, stating that they have been left to battle the disease on their own as some physicians who are charged with the responsibility of attending to them have abandoned them for fear of also contracting the deadly virus.


One of the doctors who spoke at the conference Dr. Helen Boyo-Ekwueme, a consultant Physician said

"We are not fighting anybody. We are simply giving voice to the voiceless. Those people in isolation at the IDH cannot voice out these concerns. Let them have basic treatment. It shouldn’t be as if we just stood there and abandon them and watch them die one by one. They are human beings. That female doctor is a patriotic Nigerian and she needs to be helped. You people (journalists) should go there and see the surroundings where they are being treated. You would wonder if these are human beings who still have relatives. They are just being left on their own. Nobody is counseling them. They are just there as if they have been forgotten. We should remember that they didn’t ask to contract Ebola and it can happen to anybody. We are appealing for international help for these health workers. Go there yourself and witness firsthand the condition under which they are being taken care of” she said bitterly

Another Doctor, Dr Ladi Okuboyeju, who spoke at the press conference said the Ebola isolation facility does not have basic amenities such as light and water and that most of the doctors are running away from the victims. He stated that Nigeria can not handle the crisis even if doctors were not on strike

"If a health facility doesn’t have light, doesn’t have water and the sanitary system is not working properly then we have got a problem. Now the patients are critically ill and their condition is getting worse by day. People, including some medical personnel, are now running away from them. The reality is that the disease is beyond our capacity to handle in this country. The international community needs to rise up to our aid. The victims are not being properly treated. Forget that the Nigeria Medical Association is on strike, we cannot handle it,” he stated.

A family member of one of the victims asked the federal government

"Where is the $12m the Federal Government said it released to fight Ebola. Remember that the matron and the ECOWAS protocol officer are already dead. Do they want all of them to start dying one after the other,”

Another family member of one of the patient, Deji Akinyanju, who spoke alleged that most of the physicians assigned to work with the WHO expert in taking care of the victims were inexperienced.

"There is a need for more medical personnel that will help look after them. Certain immune booster could also have been easily given to them. We are just concerned family members. But from what we have seen we think more can be done to help them,” Akinyanju said.