Nigeria to be Officially Declared Ebola Free on the 20th of October.
8th Oct 2014 Despite the fact that Nigeria has no new cases and no persons under surveillance, Nigeria cannot be officially be declared Ebola free until the 20th of October 2014, following WHO protocol which specifies that that announcement can only be made 42 days after the last EVD case has been released from the hospital.
However, Nigeria’s Health officials are not getting comfortable just yet. Health Minister Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu is quoted as saying Explaining, he said: “Like I said in my speech two weeks ago at the UN General Assembly, as long as there is a single case of Ebola in any part of the world, every country is at risk. So this is really theoretical and countries would still have to take the necessary precautionary measures to guard against the outbreak of the virus in their territories.
He added “We also have a large Nigerian community in Texas, so we could still be at risk if a Nigerian contracts it from that place and comes home with it undetected. It is a risk that every country faces as long as other countries continue to combat Ebola outbreaks.”