Ebola Hits Health Ministry-Kills Minister’s Special Assistant

Latest reports published by a Liberian online news magazine -Frontpage Africa have revealed that the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has recorded an Ebola death with the Special Assistant to the Chief Medical Officer falling prey to the deadly virus. The report has been confirmed by authorities of the Health Ministry following contact there by the NEW VISION Newspaper on Friday.

Rev. Napoleon Braithwaite is the latest healthcare workers are hardly hit by the virus with 182 cases of suspected, probable and conformed Ebola according to the World Health organization latest figures released on Liberia.

The WHO reports 87 suspected, probable and confirmed deaths of health care workers from Ebola. The Administrative arm of the Ministry of Health had been until Thursday yet to report high profile causality from Ebola, but Rev. Napoleon Braithwaite, a Special Assistant to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Bernice Dahn, has become the latest to fall to the deadly Ebola virus.

News of Rev. Braithwaite’s demise broke on Thursday Morning as the government of Liberia was preparing for a news conference at the Health Ministry to announce the outsourcing of Liberia’s Ebola Fight to United Nations Agencies in Liberia. The venue was quickly changed and the entire Ministry ordered to spray by Health Minister, Dr. Walter Gwenigale.

A Health Ministry spokesperson confirmed Thursday that the deceased died from the deadly Ebola virus and family members who helped to put him in a car to take him to the hospital, said he had not been going to work for a week now. The relative said it was difficult not to hold and touch him because they had a special bond and they could not see him suffer and not help. According to one relative, they place themselves under quarantine for 21 days.

“He had seven children living with him in the house. When I took him from the house his pressure was 581; when we went to JFK it was 346, his sugar was high and he kept drinking sweets. Monday he walked from the room and took a bottle of Lucozade and drank the whole bottle. He was sick for less than a week. His brother said he (Napoleon) called him and said he was not feeling well. Monday he did not go to work,” said the relative.

Mr. Tolbert Nyenswah said Dr. Dahn has put herself on a 21-day quarantine. “She has placed herself in a 21-day observatory quarantine. Her office and the entire Ministry have been sprayed. She knows what to do in a situation like this as Chief Medical Officer of the Republic of Liberia,” Nyenswah said.

“All those who worked in Dr. Dahn’s office, including those at the Ministry who came in close contact with the deceased have been placed on 21-day quarantine. We are not taking anything for granted at the Ministry. We are taking the necessary precautions.”

News of Rev. Braitwswaite’s death comes as a shock to many as Liberia continues its fight against the deadly Ebola disease. The Health Ministry becomes the third government entity to report the death of a high-ranking employee of the government of Liberia. “This thing is hitting the home closer and closer I am scared like crazy. My friend, my brother, a colleague Rev. Napoleon Barthwarte died this morning from the deadly Ebola virus. A man, Napoleon man. Go in peace brother,” posted, a friend of the late Rev. Braithwaite.

“I just got the news that my cousin, my brother, the Reverend Napoleon Brathwaite has died. Aye Nap. My grandmother reared all of us together on Snapper Hill. I just spoke to him the other day. Rest in peace Nap,” stated another close relative of the deceased. Rev. Brathwaite is a long serving head of the Peaceful Baptist Church in the Battery Factor Community on the Somalia Drive.

The menacing virus last month hit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is also the seat of the Liberian presidency. The victim then was Mrs. Sharon Shamoyan Washington, Administrative Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Augustine K. Ngafuan.

The Ministry of Finance was hard hit in July of this year when an employee Patrick Sawyer, who contracted the virus from his sister in Liberia died. This string of deaths led to many deaths of health workers and people who came in close proximity with the pair, both in Liberia and Nigeria including foreign and local health workers.

Nigeria’s unfortunate encounter with the deadly disease came when Sawyer traveled onboard an Arik Air flight on an ECOWAS seminar to Nigeria. Sawyer died in Nigeria and most of the health workers who attended to him contracted the disease.