Screening of passengers for Ebola Virus has resumed at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
This is an immediate action taking by the Federal Government of Nigeria to prevent the spread of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) from spreading into the country follow the confirmation of outbreak of the deadly disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the World Health Organisation (WHO.
A source which spoke with africanbusinesstravel.com.ng on the condition of anonymity said “public health emergency contingency plan has been activated.”
The sources said further actions are already in place to prevent the spread of the deadly disease into any part of the country.
Our correspondent who visited the arrival hall of the Lagos airport reported that health officials were busied screening h passengers.
africanbusinesstravel.com.ng also learnt that all concerned agencies have been contacted to mobilise and deplore relevant personnel to take part in the exercise.
WHO has said the Ebola outbreak in Congo had its second confirmed case on Sunday, along with 17 other suspected cases.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday.
It said the Ebola outbreak in Congo had its second confirmed case on Sunday, along with 17 other suspected cases.
Reuters reported health officials are trying to trace 125 people thought to be linked to the cases identified in the remote northeastern province of Bas-Uele province in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo near the border with Central African Republic.
Three people have so far died among the 19 suspected and confirmed cases, said World Health Organization’s Congo spokesman Eugene Kabambi.
Meanwhile, Management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has assured Nigerians of adequate surveillance at the nation’s airports following the outbreak of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
FAAN’s Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu said on Saturday, saying that there was no direct flight from Congo to Nigeria.
Yakubu also assured that all the preventive measures being put in place at the airports were still in place.
She said that the Port Health Service (PHS) officials were at alert at all airports, adding that the authority had also informed them of the need to increase surveillance.
“We don’t have direct flights from Congo, we only have from Rwanda but I want to assure members of the public that we still have all preventive measures in place at our airports.
“There are sanitisers at our arrivals with the scanning apparatus called Thermal scanners being installed by the Port Health Services.
“The scanners have camera monitors that display pictures aside the capturing of temperature.
“Passengers still fill that form to ensure that everybody arriving the country through our airports are not potential carriers of deadly diseases.
“The port health officials are always at alert and we will also inform them of the need to increase their surveillance. “So, there is no cause for alarm,” she said. Nigeria experienced the Ebola virus in July
It was not immediately clear how the first victim, a deceased male, caught the virus, although past outbreaks have been linked to contact with infected bush meat such as apes.
The outbreak comes just a year after the end of an epidemic in West Africa killed more than 11,300 people mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
However, Congo, whose dense forests contain the River Ebola near where the disease was first detected in 1976, has experienced many outbreaks and has mostly succeeded in containing them without large-scale loss of life.
The GAVI global vaccine alliance said on Friday some 300,000 emergency doses of an Ebola vaccine developed by Merck could be available in case of a large-scale outbreak and that it stood ready to support the Congo government on the matter.
