Justina Ejelonu…Nigerians plead for the Ebola vaccine to save her life.
Using the various social media platforms, Nigerians are pleading with President Barack Obama and the United States Food and Drug Administration to ignore all bureaucratic bottlenecks and make available to Nigeria, the anti-Ebola vaccine, ZMapp, for the treatment of a young nurse, Justina Ejelonu, who was infected with the Ebola Virus in the line of duty. The vaccine, ZMapp, is being developed in the U.S and has been deployed to treat two Americans and a Spaniard also infected in the line of duty in Liberia.
Taking to social websites as Facebook and Twitter, the petitioners begged Obama to release the vaccine to Ejelonu and other Africans suffering from the virus. The petition which was also launched on the official White House website, has gone viral with the message: #GiveThemExperimentalDrugs.
Ejelonu is one of the medical personnel infected with the Ebola virus after treating the Liberian victim, Patrick Sawyer who traveled to Nigeria despite knowing that he was already infected with the deadly disease. The deadly virus, which leads to death in humans within days from infection, is transmitted through sweat, urine, blood, and other fluids from the body.
In a note to her friends in which she pleaded for assistance, Ejelonu said she did not have direct contact with Sawyer’s body fluids. In the note also made available to www.Africanewscircle.com, Ejelonu recounted her encounter with Sawyer. Ejelonu said she had checked Sawyer’s vitals and helped him with food because he was too weak, and that the mode of transmission could be from touching the same surfaces as the Liberian.
Her words: “I never contacted his fluids. I checked his vitals, helped him with his food (he was too weak). I basically touched where his hands touched and that’s the only contact — not directly with his fluids.
“At a stage, he yanked off his infusion and we had blood everywhere on his bed. But the ward maids took care of that and changed his linens with great precaution. Every patient is treated as high-risk. If it were air borne, by now wahala for dey (there would have been trouble). I still thank God.”
Ejelonu noted that the workers’ uniforms and Sawyer’s bedding were burnt afterwards, saying the staff were under surveillance and off-duty till August 11.
She added: “Our samples have long been taken by the World Health Organisation and so far, we have been fine. Kudos to my hospital management because we work professionally with every patient considered as high-risk — that’s the training.”
The nurse stated that the outcome might have been different, were it a public hospital, adding that she was however grateful to the Lagos State and the Nigerian Governments for their support.
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