Health
Panic in Ebonyi State as hospital alerts of new COVID variant outbreak
Fear has gripped hospital workers in Ebonyi State following an internal memo within the National Obstetric Fistula Centre, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, alerting workers of an outbreak of a new variant of COVID-19 in the State.
The internal memo dated August 22, 2023, emanated from the office of the head of clinical services and was addressed to the hospital community.
It was tiled: ‘FYI: COVID IS ON THE PROWL AGAIN, CAUTION, PLEASE’, and signed by Dr. Yakubu E.N, Head of Clinical Services.
It reads, “With the new variant, BA.4 and BA.5 COVID delta, there is no cough, no fever. It’s a lot of joint pain, headache, neck and upper back pain, general weakness, loss of appetite and pneumonia. Sore throat that resembles strep throat, and of course, more virulent and with a higher mortality rate. It takes less time to go to extremes. Sometimes without symptoms. Be more careful.
“This strain does not live in the naso-pharyngeal region. Now it directly affects the lungs, which means that the ‘windows’ periods of time are shorter. There have been several patients without fever, without pain, but who report mild chest pneumonia on their X-rays. Nasal swab tests are very often negative for Covid-19, and there are more and more false negative results from nasopharyngeal tests.
“This means that the virus spreads and spreads directly to the lungs, causing acute respiratory stress caused by viral pneumonia. This explains why it has become sharp, more virulent and deadly. Please, be extremely careful.
“Avoid crowded places, keep 1.5 distance even in open places, double face masks and wash your hands often (and when we cough or sneeze). Please no hugs, it is very dangerous at the moment, as almost everyone is asymptomatic. This “wave” is much more deadly than the first, so we have to be VERY careful and take every kind of precaution.
“Do not keep this information to yourself; share it as much as you can, especially with your friends.”
It was gathered that the memo has created panic within the hospital community and the entire State.
But a senior health official, who spoke to newsmen under anonymity expressed doubt over the authenticity of the claims by Yakubu.
“That memo has created unnecessary panic in the State. If there is an outbreak of COVID, Dr Yakubu shouldn’t be the one to announce it; the ministry of health is the right authority.
“We don’t know where he got the information from, but I’m not aware of an outbreak of COVID-19 or any of its strains in Ebonyi State,” she stated.
As of the time of filing this report, the Ebonyi State Ministry of Health is yet to react to the memo.
Health
From South Africa to US, ‘Cicada’ COVID-19 variant spreading
According to the latest available data from the health authorities, this variant has been spotted in 23 countries and in wastewater from 25 US states.
• New Cicada COVID variant detected across US states.
“Cicada” a nickname given to BA.3.2, a COVID-19 variant, is spreading around the world , according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
Like most other variants, the symptoms of the Cicada variant are the same as those of other COVID-19 variant infections.
According to the CDC, these includes:
Runny or stuffy nose, Fever, Headache, Fatigue, Sneezing, Sore throat,Cough, Muscle pain or body aches Vomiting, Diarrhea, and Changes to the sense of smell or taste.
According to the latest available data from the health authorities, this variant has been spotted in 23 countries and in wastewater from 25 US states.
In November 2024, BA.3.2 popped up in a nose swab of a 5-year-old boy in South Africa, and it looked very different than its parent virus.
It was first picked up in the US last summer, in a traveler from the Netherlands.
In January , the first clinical sample from a sick patient turned out to be BA.3.2.
It appears to be circulating in the US at low levels, although testing has been scaled back since the height of the pandemic, so it may be more widespread than currently known.
Health
Fire Razes Ebonyi Ministry of Health Section
” Different vaccines like BCG, penta, HPV vaccine etc that were all stored in that cold room were burnt”.
A section of the Ebonyi State Ministry of Health, weekend , was gutted by fire with property worth hundreds of millions of naira destroyed.
The inferno destroyed the cold store housing immunisation and solar units which contained vaccines, vaccine carriers, cold chain boxes, laptops, documents, five refrigerators, two solar refrigerators, 45 solar batteries, inverters, including hospitals beds and foams received from the National Primary Health Care Development Authority (NPHCDA), Abuja, for distribution to local government areas across the state, among others.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Moses Ekuma, lamented the disaster and thanked God that no life was lost. He thanked the Commissioner for Power and Energy, the fire service personnel, and the security men who alerted him on time for their prompt response, which made the fire not spread to other parts of the building.
He said, “Different vaccines like BCG, penta, HPV vaccine etc that were all stored in that cold room were burnt”.
Health
Health Workers Protest Against Regulatory Bill
They maintain that all health professions have their regulatory bodies, and that the new bill was seeking to make other health professionals second-class to medical doctors.
Health workers under the Joint Health Sector Unions and the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations are protesting against the proposed health sector regulatory bill, which is before the National Assembly.
They said that if allowed to pass, the law would subject every medical profession to the regulation of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
They maintain that all health professions have their regulatory bodies, and that the new bill was seeking to make other health professionals second-class to medical doctors.
The protesters plan to also go to the National Assembly, where they hope to present their case to lawmakers.
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