WHO continues monitoring 52 Ebola contacts in Nigeria
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Vanguard
The World Health Organisation is continuing to monitor 52 people potentially exposed to Ebola in Nigeria, despite the evacuation of the confirmed patient to Switzerland. The country can only be declared Ebola-free after 42 days without a new confirmed case, according to the WHO’s Nigerian office, cited by Vanguard.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is continuing to monitor 52 people who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus in Nigeria, its country office said on X on Monday, according to Vanguard. Nigeria currently has no confirmed cases after the evacuation to Switzerland of the patient considered the index case, but the WHO has not yet declared the country free of the virus.
According to the WHO, Nigeria’s health status can only be reassessed after 42 days have elapsed since the last confirmed case tested negative twice or, in this situation, since the patient’s evacuation. A period of heightened surveillance must then be maintained. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control had previously recorded 53 contacts, including health workers, domestic employees and the patient’s husband.
This clarification came on the day the WHO announced that there were no Ebola cases in Nigeria after the patient’s evacuation. The patient was evacuated to Switzerland after a clinical improvement, but Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate warned that this improvement did not necessarily mean she was no longer contagious.
