Sunday, December 14, 2014

Ebola Heroes: Dr Ameyo Adadevoh

The Doctor who stopped Ebola in Nigeria.
Nigeria is a country of 170 million, 3/4 of whom live on less than $2/day.  Nigeria's health care system was not prepared to handle Ebola, but fortunately the disease was stopped by the clever intervention of one doctor: Dr Ameyo Adadevoh.




In August 2014 an international traveler arrived in Lagos, at a time when all federal hospitals were on a labor strike. He collapsed at the airport, and due to the similarity between the general symptoms caused by Ebola and many other diseases, he was misdiagnosed with malaria by the first doctor he saw.  The following day Dr Adadevoh, who had never seen an Ebola case, suspected EVD and ordered a blood test.  She insisted on keeping the patient isolated, even while under pressure to release him so that he could attend an ECOWAS conference.  The patient's test came back positive for EVD.  There was no functional isolation ward in Nigeria, so Dr Adadevoh created one in her hospital.

Through this surprise exposure to an EVD patient, Dr Adadevoh and several of her coworkers became infected.  Dr Adedevoh succumbed to the disease on 19 August 2014.

Due to her early action, Ebola in Nigeria was halted at 20 cases.



Photo from "Remembering my Aunt, Dr Ameyo Adadevoh, who stopped Ebola in Nigeria" http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/world/africa/because-of-ebola-ambulance-work-in-liberia-is-a-busy-and-lonely-business.html

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