Encomium
ENCOMIUM Weekly visited the (Lagos State Health Service Commission) Mainland Hospital, Yaba Lagos, the hospital presently being used as Ebola Isolation Center. The place is around Yaba College of Technology and WAEC office, Yaba, Lagos.
Coming in from WAEC, there is the Nigerian Army Military Hospital by the right.
On the left, there is a signpost indicating the hospital.
The ambience of the hospital is calm and quiet, one could hear the sound of a pin drop on the ground. There were four security men at the gate with an old small security office.
The road that leads inside the main hospital was tarred, also the paint on the wall of the security house had peeled off.
All effort to speak with the Ebola victims at the isolation centre proved abortive, the gatemen refused us access to the patients and that if at all there’s going to be an interview we should get a letter from the state government and bring to the board of the Hospital Management in order to follow necessary protocol.
The hospital used to be for infectious diseases, such as Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cholera, meningitis, rotavirus, hepatitis and others. But lately, the hospital has taken on a brand new responsibility as quarantine centre for victims of Ebola Virus Disease, EVD.
These persons are permanently under round the clock observation and treatment. While not exactly hidden, the facility, formerly known as the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH), is conveniently tucked away from the curious public. Entry into the open hospital building is carefully checked and monitored. Access into the main quarantine unit area and ward is forbidden. The isolation ward is sealed tight and strictly out of bounds.
We also gathered that instruments are dedicated to patients individually and destroyed afterwards. In line with WHO recommendation, a lot of heat-sealed plastic bags are employed for containment and disposal. There is also a decontamination unit or chamber and the laboratory section.
