An Ebola survivor and an official of the
First Consultant Medical Centre, Lagos, Dr. Ada Igonoh, on Tuesday gave
birth to a baby girl in the United States of America.
According to the management of the FCMC,
the baby girl is healthy and has been certified Ebola free by doctors
at the Greater El-Monte Community Hospital in California, US.
FCMC, in a statement on Tuesday, noted
that Igonoh was under medical surveillance during her pregnancy and
delivery to ensure that her child was born free of the viral infection.
The virus, according to some medics, can stay in a victim’s semen or body system many months after contracting the disease.
Igonoh is the only female medical doctor
to have survived the deadly disease after seven other officials in the
hospital had primary contact with the index patient, Patrick Sawyer.
Igonoh noted that she was exposed to
Sawyer while she was re-administering an I.V. fluid on Sawyer, who was
on admission at the hospital.
Igonoh, who has since been free of the
viral disease, said she had to incorporate some dietary changes to boost
her immunity levels even after she was discharged from the isolation
centre in Lagos last year.
The first Ebola case was reported in Nigeria on July 20, 2014, when the late Sawyer, a Liberian, flew into Lagos.
Sawyer, who was without Ebola symptoms
at the time of his admission at the hospital, infected two doctors, a
nurse and a ward aide.
According to the Federal Ministry of
Health, 19 Ebola cases were established in the country, 15 in Lagos and
four in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Seven persons reportedly died in the
country while the outbreak lasted. One of the dead was a senior
consultant with FCMC, Dr. Stella Adedavoh, who treated Sawyer.
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