Ebola resurgence: Government steps up surveillance at airports

Following reported outbreak of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, management of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), has assured Nigerians of adequate surveillance at the nation’s airports.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), Friday, declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying that at least one person has been confirmed dead from the outbreak in the country’s northeast.

FAAN’s Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Henrietta Yakubu, told reporters on Saturday that there was no direct flight from Congo to Nigeria, even as she assured that all preventive measures put in place at the airports were still intact.

She said that Port Health officials were at alert at all airports, adding that the authority also informed them of the need to increase surveillance.

“We don’t have direct flights from Congo, we only have from Rwanda, but I want to assure members of the public that we still have all preventive measures in place at our airports.

“There are sanitizers at our arrivals with the scanning apparatus called Thermal scanners being installed by the Port Health Services. The scanners have camera monitors that display pictures, aside the capturing of temperature, she said.

Yakubu noted that passengers still fill forms to ensure that everybody arriving the country through the airports are not potential carriers of deadly diseases, adding that “there is no cause for alarm.”

It would be recalled that Nigeria experienced Ebola outbreak in July, 2014 when a Liberian American, Patrick Sawyer, who was infected with the disease flew into Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos from Liberia.

He died five days later, even though Nigeria was able to contain the disease and subsequently declared Ebola free by WHO.