Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has explained why he was treated in Abuja for Coronavirus and not in Abia state he governs.
Speaking in a Zoom interactive session with newsmen, the Abia state Governor said he tested positive for the virus after he arrived Abuja. He further revealed that the state he governs does not have a Coronavirus testing centre.
Ikpeazu said “I started having symptoms of something that looks to me like malaria fever in the evening and then some slight headache. So my physician who is an Abian gave me Lonart antimalarial and I had that for 3 days and after the third day the symptoms persisted and he now changed the course of treatment to Emal. He gave me shots of Emal and later Fansidar. Meanwhile, as that was going on, he administered Covid-19 tests on me and at that moment we were taking our samples to Irrua in Edo State. The samples returned to indicate that I was negative for COVID-19. So I continued to treat malaria, I took malaria tests and they said I had Residual One Plus or something like that. But after taking Fansidar, I couldn’t make urine again and that gave me a shock because I am a Biochemist and I understand the implications of not being able to move my waste through urine. So, we assembled 4 doctors from around Abia here who came to look at me and they recommended that I begin treatment at a hospital in Abia known as Mecure. I went there and had my first run of dialysis, as they diagnosed, I also did 3 scans and they looked at my organs. While they were working on these, my ill health was deteriorating and therefore I started to seek the further opinion of other doctors elsewhere. And in embarking on that journey, I went with 3 doctors from Abia and a 4th joined us in Abuja. Since we had already eliminated the possibility of Covid-19 infection based on the result from the test centre in Edo State, my sojourn to Abuja was in further diagnosis of what the situation could be. It was while I was in Abuja that the Covid-19 test was conducted again, and when it came out positive that time round, we felt it was advisable to start treatment there immediately considering the deteriorating state of my health instead of us wasting the time to return to Abia. Unknown to the people around Nigeria, the Amachara Medical Centre has achieved more than 98% success in the treatment of COVID-19.”