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By Louis Ibah
Nigeria is taking practiced steps to stem the outbreak or re-entry of the dreaded Ebola virus through any of its airports following the announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, spokeswoman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, said on Monday.
But some port health officials at the international and the domestic terminals of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos told Daily Sun that they were yet to get any official briefing on what steps to take to halt the virus’ entry into the country through the airports.
Daily Sun observed that the Ebola screening points had not been activated as was obtainable when the country was hit by the virus in 2014. It was also observed that there was no form of screening going on for outbound passengers to check temperature fluctuations, which was usually the first test carried out to detect if a passenger was infected by the virus.
Yakubu, however, in a statement on Monday said FAAN was teaming up with the Federal Ministry of Health to reactivate all structures that it had earlier dismantled to combat the virus when it last occurred in the country in 2014.
“We want to assure passengers and airport users of safety at the nation’s airports as adequate measures have been put in place to checkmate the re-occurrence of any such outbreak in Nigeria through the country’s airports,” said Yakubu.
“All measures adopted in 2014 to curtail the dreaded virus are very much in place and have been fortified. The Ebola screening points and detecting machines have been fully re-instated at the airports. FAAN is also collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Health, through the Port Health Service to reactivate the Ebola Awareness and Sensitisation Campaign,” she added.
While stating emphatically that there was no outbreak of Ebola in Nigeria or at any Nigerian airport, she implored passengers and airport users to go about their business activities without fear.
