Ebola: FG Directs Surveillance At All Entry Points
Following the report of recent outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo, the Federal Executive Council, FEC, Wednesday directed the Federal Ministry of Health to step up surveillance at all entry points in the country, to prevent Ebola virus being brought into the country.
The FEC which was presided over by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Council Chamber, also directed a full scale investigation to ascertain the allegation of payment of tuition fees per unit course at the nation’s federal universities, in order to put a stop to it.
This is as the government approved the sum of N1.365, 364, 458.75 billion for the procurement of new equipment for control towers in six airports in the country.
Briefing the State House correspondents after the end of the weekly meeting, the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole said that FEC, ordered that steps should be taken to ensure that the dreaded Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should not be allowed to come to Nigeria.
Prof. Adewole explained that part of the new measures to be taken include screening passengers coming into the country.
According to him, “Of course of great concern to the Federal Executive Council is the outbreak of Ebola in DR 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 a particular district in DRC, in two of the five cases, Ebola was 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 centre which will be chaired by Dr. Babatunde Babasanya, who actually led our efforts in Liberia, 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.
“The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will also consider sending some teams to DRC as part of building capacity for managing the outbreak. We want to assure Nigerians that the federal government is concerned about the outbreak and will do everything possible to keep the country safe.”
The Health Minister also disclosed that his ministry presented an update on the state of public health to the council.
He said, “We reported on the situation with Lassa fever and declared that we are declaring the emergency phase of Lassa fever outbreak over.
Essentially, that implies that the emergency operating centre would be stood down but that instead of meeting everyday throughout the country, they will now meet once a week. They will still continue surveillance so that if there are cases anywhere in the country we can quickly dictate it and then treat it appropriately.”
Also fielding question on whether FEC discussed the ongoing strike by Joint Health Sector Union, JOHESU, he said, “Negotiations are still on with Joint Health Sector Union, JOHESU, and the minister of labour is leading the negotiation and we expect that we will conclude on all issues very soon.”
