Nigeria considers weekly 100,000-naira payments for people in Ebola isolation
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Pmnewsnigeria
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is considering paying 100,000 naira a week to people quarantined after the Ebola case confirmed in Nigeria. Director-general Jude Idris also said that 53 people were being monitored and a suspected case in Port Harcourt had tested negative, according to Pmnewsnigeria.
Nigeria is considering paying 100,000 naira a week to people placed in isolation because of the Ebola outbreak, to help them provide for their families during quarantine, the director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Jude Idris, said on Sunday, according to Pmnewsnigeria. The number of people being monitored after confirmation of an imported case has risen from 44 to 53.
Those under monitoring include possible contacts of the patient, healthcare workers and domestic staff. Idris described the proposed support as a temporary measure to ease financial hardship and tensions associated with isolation. The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is expected to manage the scheme, while state governments are responsible for supporting people in isolation.
A suspected case in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, tested negative. The University of Abuja is also preparing its isolation centre to accommodate anyone who may need to be monitored. The confirmed case is a 42-year-old Ugandan woman, the wife of a Swiss national, who arrived in Nigeria after travelling to Uganda. Idris said health authorities were struggling to reconstruct all her movements, complicating efforts to identify people who may have been exposed.
The proposed payments come as Nigeria continues to monitor contacts linked to the confirmed case in a female traveller. On 25 October, the country reported that 53 contacts were being monitored as part of its response to the outbreak.
