FG Says Ebola Disease Won’t Enter Nigeria

The Federal Government of Nigeria on Monday assured citizens that the deadly Ebola disease does not exist in the country.
The Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, made this known while addressing a news conference in Abuja, disclosing that there was no cause for anxiety as the Federal Government was tracking the disease to prevent it from entering Nigeria.
He, however, advised citizens to keep their environment clean, saying there were no vaccines for most vector-borne diseases.
As part of Government’s efforts at celebrating the World Health Day, Professor Chukwu presented anti-rabies vaccines and other drugs to the Nigerian Army.
Meanwhile, a public health physician and State Epidemiologist from the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Ismail Abdul-Salam, has warned that health workers are at a higher risk of contracting the rare Ebola Virus, which was first discovered in then Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1976.
“The health workers are highly at risk of contracting this infection
because you need a high index of suspicion to take care of the patient and you might not even know when you are dealing with a patient that had this viral hemorrhagic fever,” he said, while appearing on Sunrise.
Mr Abdul-Salam, who noted that the virus led to the death of 88 percent of those infected in the first recorded outbreak, explained that the Ebola hemorrhagic fever is caused by Ebola virus which is in the same family with the yellow fever virus.