The Federal Government has given a clue to what might
have killed a 21-year-old male student of the University of
Calabar, who was suspected to have died of Ebola Virus
Disease. It said the deceased died of “metallic poisoning.”
The government specifically said that it came out with that
verdict after it received the result of confirmation test on the
cause of the deceased death.
The Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health,
Mr. Linus Awute, made the clarification in Abuja during an
interview with The PUNCH.
According to him, what killed the student had to do with the
management of his “lifestyle in terms of what he ate or what
he took, which happens now and then.”
Our correspondent reported that the patient was diagnosed
with a suspected case of hemorrhagic fever on October 7,
2015.
The government had notified the nation that preliminary
tests carried out on the blood samples of the patient
confirmed that the deceased was negative to both the Ebola
virus and the Lassa fever virus.
About three weeks ago, government had also stated that
additional tests, using next generation sequencing methods,
were going to be carried out at the Redeemers University
African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious
Diseases at Ede, Osun State, to confirm which virus must
have caused the infection and the subsequent death of the
UNICAL student.
But Awute insisted that the UNICAL student died of “metallic
poisoning” and not Ebola Virus Disease.
He said, “There is a test confirmation that it is not Ebola. It
has also been confirmed that issues like that used to come
up. We are sensitive to issues like that, because of the Ebola
experience. It is also clear and obvious to us that there was
nobody who touched him or who was around him that got
infected. And so, it can’t be an infectious disease.
“It is traceable to a kind of poison which is classified as
metallic poisoning. The UNICAL student was a victim of
metallic poisoning; but nobody can actually say how it
happened. The most important thing for us is that we have
exempted the danger of infecting another person, which
means it is not any known infectious disease.
“It is not Ebola and cannot be associated with any infectious
disease because all the public health protocols required in
ascertaining that it is not Ebola and it is not any hemorrhagic
fever has been done. The number of days for which it can
infect another person or any other person around him to
show similar symptoms has also been exceeded.
“So, one can comfortably conclude that it is not Ebola; it is
not any other infectious disease. It has to do with the
management of the person’s lifestyle in terms of what he ate
or what he drank. It is just that in this era when we have to
be vigilant about infectious diseases, you don’t see such
things and take it for granted. So, that is why we had to
respond in the way and manner that is expected of us as the
custodian of the health system of Nigeria.”
In its earlier test, the government claimed that initial
findings by the laboratory necessitated additional tests,
leading to a delay in the release of the result.
“The result of these tests is now out and I wish to inform the
nation that the blood sample from the patient tested
negative to all pathogenic viruses known to man. Further
tests were conducted to establish any bacterial or fungal
infection involvement and this also proved negative. The
possibility of poisoning or intoxication with a chemical
cannot be ruled out at this stage. The Nigeria Centre for
Disease Control will continue with this investigation in
collaboration with the National Agency for Food and Drug
Administration and Control,” Awute said.
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