Dr Ameyo Stella Recognised in Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine for Stopping Ebola in Nigeria

Summary: Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, the Nigerian physician who identified and contained the first Ebola index case in Lagos in July 2014, saving countless lives, has been officially recognised in the 11th edition of the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine.

Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, a Nigerian physician who saved countless lives by identifying and containing the first Ebola index case in Lagos in July 2014, has been officially recognised in the 11th edition of the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine.

Dr Ameyo identified the index case of Ebola virus in Nigeria during a post-take ward round in Lagos in 2014, despite never having encountered the disease before. She isolated and treated the patient under litigation threats, with neither her hospital nor her country equipped to handle the crisis. According to the handbook, she made the decision for the greater public good.

Her decision prevented the disease from spreading across a nation of over 200 million people. She died from Ebola on August 19, 2014, as part of a death toll that exceeded eight people, including four other healthcare workers to whom the handbook also pays tribute.

She has been widely credited by global health institutions, including the World Health Organisation, for Nigeria’s successful containment of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, one of the most consequential public health interventions in the country’s history.

The handbook stated that her memory confers greater meaning to doctors’ lives, embodying what it means to do what one can to help the most.