As Reps Want Increased Awareness
Worried by the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Uganda and Kenya, with Nigeria recording a case yesterday, the Senate is calling for mandatory health screening at all entry points.
The motion sponsored by Senator Adebayo Faduyile from Ondo South noted that the NCDC has rated the risk of importation as high, with no approved vaccine available, and commended the Federal Government for stepping up surveillance.
He expressed concern over poor staffing and equipment at entry points, warning that Nigeria, already battling Lassa fever, cholera and diphtheria, cannot afford another outbreak.
In their contributions to the motion, Senators Ekong Samson, Umar Sadik, Mohammed Tahir Monguno, Adamu Aliero and Ali Ndume, urged the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health to make health and symptom screening compulsory at airports, seaports and land borders, including departing passengers.
They also called on relevant agencies to equip personnel with necessary facilities and provide isolation centres in the 36 states and the FCT, and to replace the obsolete Quarantine Act of 1926 with a modern legislation.
In his remarks, Senate President Godswill Akpabio decried the laxity at entry points, noting that a traveller from Kenya was not detected at the airport but at a hospital, with contact tracing revealing 44 contacts.
He described it as a wake-up call for all Nigerians to be proactive and directed the Judiciary Committee to liaise with the Health Committee and relevant MDAs to fast-track amendment of the Quarantine Act.
In a related development,the House of Representatives has called for increased public awareness as well as early preparation of isolation camps following confirmation of a fresh outbreak in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
During a session on Wednesday, Reps members also called for alertness and asked the Federal Government to take advantage of the 2014 blueprint with which the Ebola virus was contained.
The committee on infectious disease has been mandated to immediately swing into action to ensure that the resolutions of the House are promptly carried out.
According to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, the imported case of Ebola virus disease was confirmed by laboratory testing.
Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja, Pate said the patient is a woman with a recent travel history to East Africa, particularly Uganda, who returned to Nigeria with symptoms on October 7th, which progressed four days later before tests confirmed the infection.
He said the patient is currently in isolation and receiving medical care, and contact tracing has commenced, with forty-four contacts already identified, as surveillance is strengthened at the country’s entry points.
“The patient, a woman who recently arrived in Nigeria on an international flight from Uganda, was admitted to a private hospital… where she received care for several days before the diagnosis was confirmed,” a government statement said. “She is currently in isolation and receiving medical care.”
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate had earlier
explained that the Ministry of Health, the FCT Health Secretariat, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and other partners are working together to contain the infection and prevent further spread.
