Nigeria Increases Health Surveillance After DRC Ebola Outbreak

Nigeria’s health ministry has said that they have increased surveillance in their health sector in light of the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The DRC, alongside the World Health Organisation, announced over the weekend that there had been a new outbreak of the deadly virus in the country.

WHO said that the outbreak had already claimed the lives of three people in the DRC.

Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has warned Nigerians to be on high alert for possible cases of the virus and to immediately see doctor should they start to experience any symptoms linked to Ebola.

Adewole also said that those who come in contact with people from the DRC should be vigilant.

The health ministry have deployed several health workers to various ports entering Nigeria.

“The minister has directed the director of health services at the ports to ensure that public health workers are put on the alert…If you go to the ports now, you will see health workers on the ground. They have been deployed to screen people coming into Nigeria for symptoms of haemorrhagic fevers [sic],” a spokesperson for the health ministry said.

WHO confirmed that this latest outbreak in the DRC is the first one to have claimed lives since the epidemic in 2014.

That epidemic spread mostly throughout West African countries and left more than 11 000 people dead. However, Nigerian healthcare workers and other authorities were widely praised with how they managed to keep the epidemic contained in Nigeria.

During the 2014 epidemic, Nigeria had only 19 reported cases of Ebola and only seven deaths.