Saturday 20 February 2016

Secret heroes - rarely heard of in the West, but not forgotten here

This week has been a bit challenging to me health-wise as I struggled a bit with a running stomach after having eaten a salad in one restaurant. I know we don't normally talk about these issues when we travel, we prefer to report on the positive sides of seeing new places. Well, I don't mind going through some smaller adjustments to the local environment here in Lagos, cause I know in the end it makes my system stronger. But when your body is weak and you wonder if it might be a virus, an infection or even malaria you get to reflect on the importance of good health services. 

Mama Dorcas took me to First Consultants Hospital, a private hospital here in Lagos. The doctor I met had studied at Karolinska in Stockholm, what a coincidence! Now as we were there waitting for the results from my blood test, which I by the way never in my life have experienced so gently that I hardly felt the needle and it didn't even  bleed afterwards, Mama Dorcas shared a story from the time when there was an Ebola case treated at that hospital. 

First Consultants Hospital treated the first Ebola patient in Nigeria, the Liberian-American financial consultant Patrick Sawyer. Sawyer came to Lagos in July 2014 for business meetings. At his first reaction he denied the symptoms and the disease, and was treated for malaria. As he was taken to First Consultants Hospital Dr Ameyo Adadevoh took action in trying to treat the patient and keep the virus from spreading. As Sawyer first denied the disease he even got the embassy to demand his release. Dr Adedevoh refused to release Sawyer and placed him in quarantine despite the pressure from the Liberian gouvernment. It is said that Sawyer in his anger tore off his catheter and pointed at the doctor and a nurse. Sawyer died five days after his arrival in Lagos. Both the nurse and doctor contracted the virus from him and died about a month later. The nurse was serving her first year as a professional, she was newly married and was expecting her first child. Without doubt, Dr Adadevoh in her act to prevent Sawyer to expose others to the virus, saved the city of Lagos and its over 20 million inhabitants and maybe the whole of Nigeria from experiencing a disastrous epidemic.

The Nigerian gouvernment also took other important decisions to prevent the spread, by mobilising their epidemiologists they traced down all individuals that Sawyer had been in contact with since his arrival in the country, and those of other Ebola cases. They visited a total of 26000 households and played a role in spreading information and preventing false rumours to cause riots and civil unrest.

Within three months the most densely populated nation of Africa had contained the Ebola virus with only eight deaths. Much thanks to those who unselfishly gave their lives to serve and protect others. Including Dr Adedevoh and the nurse treating Sawyer. The unheard stories of secret heroes that rarely reach the media in the West!