Ebola: FG declares National Health Emergency

 

Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, yes­terday declared that Ni­geria must treat Ebola outbreak as a national emergency, even as he reiterated that seven per­sons have contracted the virus in the country.

Addressing the House of Representatives Com­mittee on Health, Chukwu said the outbreak had taken a dimension of a national emergency and urged Ni­gerians to treat it as such.

The World Health Or­ganisation (WHO) has put the death figure in West Af­rica at 932. The death toll from WHO came on the heels of a confirmation by authorities in Nigeria of the death of a nurse as a result of Ebola virus.

Describing the situa­tion in the country as bad, the health minister said Patrick Sawyer, the Libe­rian, credited with bringing Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) to Nigeria, ‘knew he was sick’ with the virus before entering the country.

The minister revealed that Sawyer disregard­ed instructions by Liberian health authorities not to travel out of the country.

He disclosed that seven Nigerians, including one dead, were already diag­nosed with Ebola.