Following the current panic in America over the reported
outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease EVD, in Dallas, Texas, the
United States government has sent medical experts to Nigeria to study
how the country was able to quickly halt the spread of EVD.
This was made known on Tuesday in a statement issued by Tom Frieden,
Director of United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a
copy obtained by Vanguard.
He disclosed that the man who imported Ebola into US was discovered
to have travelled to Liberia without informing the United States
authorities and did not disclose the nature of his ailment to the nurse
that attended to him, who is now also diagnosed Ebola.
According to him, the crisis is under control and the public has
nothing to fear. He said it is clear the nation needs a quick and
thorough response to its first Ebola patient, adding that although
Nigeria was not completely out of the woods, its extensive response to a
single case of Ebola shows that control is possible with rapid, focused
interventions.
Frieden, who also revealed that apart from Nigeria, the US will also visit Senegal to study its model said: “the
best practices in Nigeria and Senegal suggest the U.S. should monitor
all individuals who may have been exposed to Ebola and establish a
dedicated management and response system.”
The health official further stated that the U.S officials expected in
Nigeria are experts in the handling and combating of Ebola Virus
disease.
Speaking on how Nigeria was able to successfully stop the killer disease, Frieden said: “Nigeria’s
first reported case of Ebola surfaced July 20, when Patrick Sawyer
landed in Lagos from Liberia and exposed 72 other passengers to the
virus. Nigeria’s Health officials quickly issued notifications and
tracked everybody who may have been in contact with Sawyer.
“Nigeria also established an Ebola Incident Management Center to
handle the potential outbreak and developed a staffing plan that
executed a social mobilization strategy that reached more than 26,000
households of people living around the contacts of Ebola patients.”
On Senegal, the first confirmed case of Ebola was on August 29, 2014,
after a man, travelling from Guinea on August 14, fell ill and later
showed symptoms of the disease. The development prompted a quick
response, which led to the identification of 67 contacts that were
placed under quarantine, and monitored for 21 days but showed no
symptoms of the deadly disease.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government is expected to officially announce
today (Wednesday) that the remaining two potential Ebola patients will
be released since the 21-day observation period. Nigeria has not
reported any new case of the deadly Ebola virus since August 31, while
Senegal has also not recorded any new case of Ebola since September 18,
2014.
It was reported by the World Health Organisation, WHO, that the
killer virus has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people in Sierra
Leone, Guinea and Liberia in the largest outbreak ever seen.
It would be recalled that the killer virus was imported into Nigeria
by the late American- Liberian, Patrick Sawyer whose index case was
reported on July 20, 2014.
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