In 2014, Nigeria recorded its first case of the highly contagious and equally deadly Ebola virus that had ravaged most parts of West and Central Africa. Unlike Covid-19, the current global pandemic with a survival rate of over 90 percent, Ebola racked up a frightening 50% fatality rate. It’s entry into country carried with it much panic and uncertainty but it’s near perfect containment in the country was down to Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh and her team who laid down their lives for the nation Nigeria, a country yet to honour her 6 years on.
Exactly six years ago, on August 19, 2014, Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh heroically died. She was the doctor who discovered that a Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who arrived in Nigeria via the Lagos airport, was infected with Ebola and physically restrained him when he tried to leave.
Dr Adadevoh, then 57, and four of her colleagues – Amos Abaniwo, a doctor; Justina Ejelonu, a nurse; and Evelyn Uko, a nurse aide – died after contracting the disease while trying to treat Mr Sawyer and prevent the disease from spreading further.
The late Dr. Adadevoh and her team have been celebrated home and abroad by Nigerians and also the international community but nothing yet by the federal government.
She received several local and international awards post humously including the 2018 ECOWAS prize of Excellence by former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.
Today, Nigerians all twitter remember a fallen hero in hope that maybe some day Dr. Adadevoh and her team would receive Post Humour National honours.
