The rumours of fresh outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease which have making the round have been refuted by both the Federal and Lagos State governments.
The management of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, said that reports in the social media that two Chinese nationals allegedly died of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the hospital were false.
The Federal Government was categorical that the rumours haveno foundation in truth even as Lagos State government denounced rumours making.
There have been reports in the social media that fresh cases of the disease were recorded in the state in the last one week.
Lagos Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said that the government had investigted the report and found them to be false.
Idris, at an inter-ministerial news conference, said the fresh Ebola fear was on account of a posting on social media about a week ago that EVD had returned to Nigeria, killing three and infecting 12 other persons.
According to the commissioner, there has been no fresh case of Ebola outbreak in Lagos or any part of the country since it was contained last year.
He said that the government had traced the source of the unfounded reports to two different websites and that government had swung into action to verify the source and veracity of the claim, its author as well as embark on social media campaign to debunk the news on its facebook site.
The Commissioner named the websites where they are spreading the rumour as, “www.mercyjblog.com/2015/04/breaking-iebola-return-to-nigeriaiafter.html and http://www.naijabadoo.com.”
Idris, in the company of Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Lateef Ibirogba and the Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Wale Ahmed, also dismissed the second rumour that two Chinese visitors from Sierra Leone died of EVD at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) the same day.
He said that this second rumour emanated from a tweet on twitter @iChexo on April 12.
Idris said investigation carried out at LUTH confirmed that to be completely untrue.
In its reaction, Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Prof. Chris Bode, denied any Ebola-related death at LUTH. “Our attention was drawn this morning to a malicious piece of information making the rounds on social media which purported that two foreign nationals brought to LUTH on Sunday, April 12, 2015, died of EVD,” he said.
According to the medical director, LUTH has gone through its records at all points of entry for the past two weeks and have no such incident to report.
Bode, who spoke to journalists at a briefing, said such rumour is recklessly malicious and the hospital condemns whoever and wherever it originated from.
He said that the hospital deemed it necessary to react because such falsehood was capable of undermining the glorious works and enormous sacrifices made by the Federal Government, state governments, various stakeholders, many sung and unsung heroes and heroines who rid Nigeria of the dreaded disease and won country many international accolades.
