by Isime Esene
The Ministry of Health has declared Nigeria Ebola virus free.
This piece of good news was made public by Dan Nwomeh, the Minister of Health’s spokesman, who posted tweets on the status of the deadly disease in the country.
According to Nwomeh, the remaining twenty five Ebola contacts have been discharged from surveillance.
See his tweets below:
Minister of Health: Remaining 25 #Ebola contacts in Nigeria located in Port Harcourt area have been discharged from surveillance
— Dan Nwomeh (@DanNwomeh) September 24, 2014
Nigeria no longer has any #Ebola contacts under surveillance. All contacts have completed 21 days of observation and discharged — Dan Nwomeh (@DanNwomeh) September 24, 2014
This confirms a statement recently made by the minister on the efforts made towards ridding the country of Ebola.
He said, “Presently, there is no single case of Ebola virus disease in Nigeria – none. No cases are under treatment, no suspected cases. There are no contacts in Lagos that are still under surveillance, having completed a minimum of 21 days of observation.
“None of them are showing any symptoms. Monday (22 September 2014) will mark the end of their 21 days of observation and the plan is to get them discharged from surveillance yesterday (Tuesday 23 September 2014). Nigeria will be as clean as any other country as far as Ebola virus disease is concerned.”
Despite these assurances, experts warn that the risk of another outbreak of Ebola in Nigeria cannot be completely foreclosed due to cross-border travels by individuals who may be infected by the virus.
Liberia and Sierra Leone are still battling to contain the epidemic.
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