A US soldier who had been to Nigeria became an easy suspect of Ebola when he was admitted at a hospital in Bamenda with “clinical presentations” of the disease, a ministry of public health official told The Standard Tribune Wednesday.
Clement Bonghan, whom a relative described as a “decorated Purple Heart vet of the US army” died at the Bamenda General Hospital on 30 October, shortly after being admitted there, we heard from relatives and health officials.
“He had clinical presentations of the disease; but the history of the case and investigations showed he did not have Ebola,” said the official who works with the government’s Ebola central command in Yaounde.
Our ministry of health contact cannot be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The press office of the ministry of public health did not return our calls. Another official at the Virology lab of Centre Pasteur in Yaounde, the only laboratory that can diagnose Ebola, refused to comment.
News of the suspected Ebola case burst through social media early Wednesday and gained interest among members of the Cameroon diaspora, many of whom apparently knew Bonghan.
A few people said they were cancelling end of year trips to Cameroon after hearing the news.
“I am scheduled to arrive in Cameroon in December but will have to evaluate the situation,” Sango Mot’a Muenya, Cameroonian based in Washington DC said in an email to a popular forum of Cameroonians living abroad.
The negative tests on the Bamenda suspect means Cameroon is still Ebola free. He was not the only suspected case that had been investigated by health officials, we gathered. “We have had many suspected cases but all have tested negative. So far, Cameroon has no confirmed Ebola case,” said our ministry of health contact.
Ebola has killed about 5,000 people in West Africa and is likely to kill more people before slowing down, according to the World Health Organisation, WHO. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been hit hardest by what has been termed the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
People catch it when they come in contact with the body fluids of patients. Its first symptoms include muscular pain, headaches, sore throat and fever fatigue. Next, the patient starts to vomit, have diarrhoea, internal or external bleeding, impaired kidney, rashes and liver malfunction. Humans are not contentious until they start showing symptoms.
Authorities activated epidemic control units around the country, set up body screening and quarantine centres and shut its borders with affected West African countries after Nigeria reported its first cases in July. The ministry of health says it has raised CFA 650 million to respond to an outbreak.
Last week Cameroon reopened its land and sea border with Nigeria to people and goods after the WHO declared the western Neighbour Ebola-free and cited it as an example of how to manage the outbreak. Senegal has also been opened to traffic with Cameroon but travel restrictions still apply for Sierra Leon, Guinea and Liberia.
Official said Cameroon remained under threat and have kept border screenings and round-the-clock surveillance work in place, in spite lifting the ban.
