Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh was a physician and Endocrinologist. She worked at First Consultant Hospital, Obalende, Lagos.
Stella Adadevoh helped curb the wide spread of the Ebola Virus in Nigeria when she correctly diagnosed Liberian, Patrick Sawyer as Nigeria’s index case of Ebola Virus while placing him in quarantine despite his insistence that he simply had a bad case of malaria and wanted to attend a business conference in Calabar.
She led the team that oversaw Sawyer’s treatment and also kept him at the hospital despite receiving a request from the Liberian ambassador to release him.
This singular act saved Nigeria from widespread infection.
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When threatened by Liberian officials who wanted the patient to be discharged to attend his conference, she resisted the pressure and said, “for the greater public good” she would not release him.
She prevented him from leaving the hospital at the time of diagnosis, thereby playing a key role in curbing the spread of the virus in Nigeria.
As a result of her report, the Nigerian government declared a national public health emergency and the Nigerian Ministry of Health set up an Ebola Emergency Operations Center.
On 4th August 2014, it was confirmed that she had tested positive for Ebola virus disease and went into quarantine immediately, but she died in the afternoon of 19 August 2014.
Which Movie told Her Story
The Movie, 93 Days tells her story.
In February 2020, a road was also named after her in Abuja.
She was a grand niece of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and a great grand daughter of Herbert Macaulay
