Nigeria’s Ministries of Health, Agriculture & Interior Partner on Protecting Citizens from Ebola Virus
ABUJA (NAN) ― The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu,
said on Friday that the ministry was collaborating with other
ministries to protect Nigerians from being infected by the Ebola virus.
Chukwu
told newsmen in Abuja that surveillance had been mounted in all the
entry points into the country to stop the spread of the virus from other
country.
He
said the ministry was collaborating with the Ministries of Interior and
Agriculture and Rural Development to protect Nigerians from the Ebola
virus.
The
minister said the World Health Organisation met with Ministers of
Health from West and Central Africa in Accra, Ghana, to discuss how the
disease could be curtailed in those areas.
“In Nigeria, we are carrying out surveillance through port health services at entry points.
“You
know the way Nigerian land borders are; sometimes there are leakages
with people just walking through unauthorised borders areas.
“We
are working with other agencies because we cannot do it alone, Ministry
of Agriculture is already monitoring the migrant populaces.
“They
are monitoring migrants who are nomads. We need to also work with
Ministry of Interior in terms of checking our borders,’’ he said.
Chukwu said the disease had no vaccine, and advised travellers’ into affected places to take precaution.
“What
we do is watch out for people coming from these areas, particularly
those travelling from other ECOWAS countries into Nigeria.
“We need to monitor, track them and be sure that even when they have fever, we are sure of the type of fever it is.
“There
are no vaccines and that is the danger, if there were vaccine the
Federal Government will procure them and begin immunisation, so we
depend on surveillance,’’ he said.
He also advised Nigerians to be mindful of the fruits they consume as bats were the main carriers of the virus.
The minister said although the virus did not affect the bats, they played a key role in the Ebola case in Guinea.
He commended President Goodluck Jonathan for approving the white paper permitting the upgrading of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control into a parastatal.
Chukwu said the parastatal would be positioned to properly handle cases of disease. (NAN)
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