Nigerian authorities are weighing possible flight restrictions from Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and South Sudan — countries grappling with an Ebola virus outbreak — in a bid to curb spread of the disease.
On Thursday, a high-level strategic meeting was held in
Victoria Island, Lagos, to review the country’s Ebola preparedness and response
framework.
Some officials in the meeting included Jide Idris, director
general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC);
Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, minister of interior; Femi Gbajabiamila, chief of staff to
the president; and Akin Abayomi, Lagos commissioner for health.
After the meeting, Gbajabiamila said President Bola Tinubu
had been briefed on the current Ebola situation in the affected African
countries, and assured that the federal government would take all necessary
steps to ensure that Nigeria does not record any case.
“We have a health scare, which is Ebola, and we all know
what happened the last time. The cases are getting worse, internationally and
worldwide, and we don’t want to leave anything to chance,” the chief of staff
said.
“There were three, four areas we looked at. We looked at the
issue of possibility, as of now, of restricting flights from countries of
interest. We looked at the possibilities of isolating passengers who may
exhibit symptoms of Ebola.
“We looked at the possibility of isolating or using the
cargo terminal to deal with passengers that are coming in from those areas, and
of course, putting certain things in place, protocols in place; we believe that
prevention is better than cure, and where some passengers slip through the
cracks, then we must have ways of dealing with situations such as that.”
Tunji-Ojo said all points of entry into the country would be
under strict monitoring.
He added that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) would
work closely with the NCDC to enhance early detection and rapid response
measures.
The NCDC director general noted that preparedness plans have
been activated across all 36 states, with public awareness campaigns to be
intensified to educate citizens on prevention and response protocols.
PREVIOUS EBOLA SCARE IN NIGERIA
Nigeria’s containment was hailed as a “spectacular success
story” by the World Health Organisation (WHO), as the outbreak was effectively
controlled using an incident management approach, with support from the private
sector and international community.
Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, the late doctor who diagnosed Patrick
Sawyer, an American-Liberian citizen who was the first diagnosed patient, is
credited with helping to contain the outbreak at its source.
Countries like the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas have since imposed Ebola-related travel bans.
On Wednesday, Uganda announced a closure of its border with
the DRC to contain the virus.
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