No More Ebola Virus In Nigeria, Health Minister Declares

The Minister of Health in Nigeria, Onyebuchi Chukwu has revealed that Nigeria is completely free of active Ebola cases, adding that all contacts of the deadly disease have been released from surveillance. Chukwu made this disclosure on Tuesday, 23 September, 2014, at the United Nations General Assembly holding in New York, USA. The UN meeting, comprising of all 193 members of the UN met in New York to among other things discuss on ways to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) ravaging West African countries. This is more than two months since the index case, the late Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-America imported the deadly virus into Lagos while on a trip for a meeting of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) in Calabar on 23 July. According to the minister: “Presently, there is no single case of Ebola virus disease in Nigeria – none. No cases are under treatment, no suspected cases. There are no contacts in Lagos that are still under surveillance, having completed a minimum of 21 days of observation. The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu “None of them are showing any symptoms. Monday (22 September 2014) will mark the end of their 21 days of observation and the plan is to get them discharged from surveillance yesterday (Tuesday 23 September 2014). Nigeria will be as clean as any other country as far as Ebola virus disease is concerned.”