Nigeria is screening passengers at borders for Ebola. Reminiscing the last outbreak begs the question: Is screening enough?
This week, healthnews.africa reported that Ebola has returned to Africa via DR Congo and on Thursday, Nigeria announced it is taking measures to secure its borders against the Ebola virus disease.
Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council has given a matching order to the federal ministry of health to beef up surveillance activities at all lands and airports borders to keep Nigerians safe from Ebola epidemic. The minister of health, Professor Isaac Adewole, revealed the development at the end of the council meeting.
The outbreak in DR Congo resulted in 19 suspected cases out of which 16 died.
Adewole reiterated that council has ordered that urgent steps be taken to keep Ebola away from Nigeria, stressing that part of the new measures would be screening of all travelers entering Nigeria, particularly passengers from DR Congo and neighboring countries.
“The Port Health services unit has been placed on red-alert and will heighten screening measures at ports of entry,” Adewole said.
He further stressed the setting up of emergency surveillance operation centers to be chaired by Dr. Babasanya, who led the efforts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea during the outbreak in 2014.
Professor Adewole added that the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) will also consider sending some team members to DR Congo to build capacity to manage the outbreak.