Following the recent outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease in the Equateur Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Federal Government has ordered an emergency surveillance at the country’s borders.
This, according to the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, who spoke in Abuja, is to keep Nigerians safe.
The Ebola disease, which broke out on May 10, 2018, in the DRC, has already claimed the lives of 19 people in the country.
The minister, therefore, said the government was greatly concerned about the new outbreak of Ebola in Congo, adding that an emergency operation centre would be set up in Nigeria.
The minister said passengers from Congo and other neighbouring nations would be screened so that Nigeria would not be caught unawares.
He said, “Of course, of great concern to the Federal Executive Council is the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As you might be aware, over the last one month, DRC recorded 19 suspected cases of viral hemorrhagic fever and lost 16 of the cases. But what is also particularly important was that on Monday, blood samples from five patients in the DRC, particularly in a particular district in DRC, two of the five cases, Ebola were actually confirmed.
“And, FEC has now directed the Federal Ministry of Health to step up emergency surveillance activities at all land and airport borders so that we can actually keep Nigerians safe. What we will do is to set up an emergency operation center, which will be chaired by Dr. Babasanya, who actually led our efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone and Guinea during the outbreak in 2014.
“Not only that, we will be screening incoming passengers, particularly passengers from DRC and neigbouring countries. We will also ensure we step up all activities screening people coming in so that we will not be caught
unawares.”
He said the Nigerian Center for Disease Control would also consider sending some team to Congo “as part of building capacity for managing the
outbreak.”
