News
Nigeria declared free of Ebola – holds lessons for others
“The lesson there is: stand your ground,” he said.
Once the hospital contacted the ministries of health in the state of Lagos and the federal ministry in Abuja, authorities quickly set up and equipped an isolation unit. Lagos state governor Babatunde Fashola rushed back from a pilgrimage to Mecca to handle the crisis, Ohiaeri said.
Nigeria used an existing health surveillance infrastructure for Polio for contact tracing, so was able to trace and isolate Sawyer’s primary and secondary contacts quickly. Mobile technology meant live updates could be made to the contact list.
“Everyone played their part. We’re so proud,” Ohiaeri said.
IFRC’s Matoka said contact tracing of suspected cases was key to preventing the disease from spreading into communities where it would have been harder to control. “It was effective in identifying all suspected cases and keeping watch on them before they developed symptoms and infect other people. We were able to remove people from communities once they showed symptoms and before they infect many others,” he said.
Even when the virus found its way to the oil hub of Port Harcourt in the southeast, authorities were able to quickly contain it, an example WHO said others should be able to follow.
“If a country like Nigeria, hampered by many internal problems, can do this – any country in the world experiencing an imported case can hold onward transmission to just a handful of cases,” WHO Director Margaret Chan said in a statement.
Source: Reuters
