Coronavirus Patient In Benue Protests Isolation

The index case of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Benue State, Susan Okpe has protested her isolation at a Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) facility, alleging that she did not have the virus.

Okpe, who took to Facebook to express her displeasure, claiming she only had feverish conditions as a result of her long travel from the United Kingdom to Nigeria.

Governor Samuel Ortom, had last Saturday during a press conference in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, disclosed that a first case of the virus had been detected in the state, and gave her name as Suzan Okpe.

THE WHISTLER learnt the woman was in Benue for her mother’s funeral ceremony.

Part of her post reads:

Okpe’s Claims

“I would like the whole world to please, appeal to whoever is concerned to move me out of here, am not trying to gain cheap publicity as been trendy for days on social media.

“I have kept my cool, but am now sick with swollen gums, being stooling throughout the night, no nurses or medical attention, my crime is that am a British who came into Nigeria particularly Benue State, felt feverish, took myself for check up because I have travelled longer than usual.

“After examinations I was told by the doctor, my temperature was high and I said keep me for observations as I did not experience any before I left London, passed from Lagos to Abuja my temperature was like any other passenger was being monitored by the authorities.

“Back to my self presentation and request for isolation which was done, I was told by the doctors that the standard procedure was to call for a test from the state ministry of health of which two gentle men came to do a throat and nose swoop. After two days by now my temperature has normalised from 38:2 to 36:4.

“The records are there to be verified. Only to be told by the doctor after asking why am still kept in the hospital, a friend now came in to tell me that a press conference is being done with my name that I have Covid-19 on air, on social media without my knowledge, I went mad as a human being and demanded to see the medical director who told me he was fighting for me how, why and for what and with who I don’t understand, still fuming the next thing was armed men , ambulance and a siege round the hospital for me to be removed for what I don’t know, as someone who knows the principles of the law weather it works in Nigeria or not I can’t tell. I said I was not moving without a reason,

“I went down to speak with the deputy governor for thirty minutes and he assured me I was safe, will be cared for, though not sick with any symptoms, also that the following day the health commissioner and medical doctors from the state will come and see me I told him that if the state is insisting that am ill I should be taken to Abuja to be tested I have never in my life seen a staged played drama with human life and politics like this before, I want the world, Nigerians, Benue state  to hear my side and verify am not a Covid-19 positive,” she said.

Benue Government Reacts:

But reacting to Okpe’s allegations, the Commissioner for Information in the state, Addingi Ngunan in an interview with THE WHISTLER on Monday, said Okpe’s claims were not true, as the government was not the one that conducted the test on her, but the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

“All what she is saying is not true. We are not working here all by ourselves. We are working in conjunction with the NCDC and they sent us someone from Abuja. The test was conducted by them. It was not us that did the test. The test was conducted by NCDC and NCDC has sent another person who has come in here. Because once a state tests positive which they have the records, they always come into the state to see what else needs to be done, and also we are trying to set up a testing centre, because she must have come in contact with a lot of people, she was coming for a burial.

“So she came straight into a meeting, so they have to track all those people, so as to ensure that the link is broken and every other person that is positive is not spreading it.

“Benue State government has no testing facility to just go and pick up anybody and say this person is positive. No! Every test is conducted by NCDC. Once there is a case that is positive they move in and come into the state.

“So NCDC is the one who has the data of everybody who is positive.

On the claim that there was no medical personnel on ground at BSUTH to attend to her, the information commissioner said:

“With regards to her not been taken care of and all that, is not true. The place where she is kept is one of the centres we have kept for isolation and treatment. This disease is a new disease. There is no basic medicine or treatment per se that is given. There is a protocol  that NCDC has set up for treatment of those cases and everything that the hospital is doing is according to protocol.

“We will not do things by ourselves, we will do things by the way they gave us the books to do them. And it’s not like they have to come and give you medicine morning, afternoon, evening. They don’t do that, there are ways of managing that disease. But more than that, this lady has been counselled. Her family members, the deputy governor have come and spoken to her.

“And even right now, we’re just coming out of a meeting with NCDC officials from Abuja and the team that is managing her. We have done everything by the books, for her. And there are two consultants that are looking at her case; reason been, it’s an index case. she’s the only case right now, so they’re managing her very well.

“Every other person she has come in contact with, we are just tracking to also test them.

On why the government had to reveal her identity, which is against medical ethics, the government spokesman said:

“I need to let you know that even in law, when it becomes a matter of life and death, ethics are for the doctors, the governor is not her doctor. But the motive for disclosing her identity was not to stigmatise her. Releasing her identity, was so for anyone who has come in contact with her, will please come out, because Nigeria doesn’t have a system whereby there is system where you can track anybody. What if somebody comes up and say, me I know this person, in contact with the person that you can track.

“That meeting she went to, we’re trying to get the names of people we track, we’re not able up till now. The driver that brought her all the way from Abuja, let her even give us the name, she is not giving us up till now. So how do we get this people. So the reason why his excellency announced her name, was so that if you came in contact with a person like this, please come out so that we can test you, so that you won’t distribute the whole thing in town.

“Right now, we should tracking over 100 people, she went straight into a meeting for the funeral of her mother. Now all those people we haven’t gotten all their names. She came into a hospital that under normal circumstances, everybody that came into that hospital that day is at danger and further than that, her family members, the doctor that came in touch with her, lab consultants, all of these people we need to track them. So if we didn’t reveal her name, who will come out and say, oh I took so so person’s blood, specimen or whatever. Of course there is record in the hospital, they would have written her name down. No other motive for revealing her name other than that.”