By Lawrence Olaoye
The Federal Government yesterday cautioned the nation against unnecessary euphoria over its success in curtailing the spread of Ebola Virus Disease in the country saying the danger posed by the killer disease is yet to be over.
Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu and his Information counterpart, Labaran Maku, gave this advice while addressing newsmen after the Federal Executive Council (FEC)’s meeting, chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday.
According to Chukwu, not until the last patient presently under treatment and a number of others under surveillance are certified free of the disease, the danger could not be said to be over for the country.
He said “Let me just say that I don’t want us in Nigeria to move from panic to euphoria. The media has been working so well with us and we commend them for that but some of the headlines today (Wednesday) suggest that you may push the public to euphoria which again will be a problem.
“Yes, Nigeria is doing well on containment. Containment is like you have gotten an animal into a cage but it is not yet dead. But at least if you know where to now concentrate than when that animal was roaming. That is what we have achieved.
“We now know where the disease is in Nigeria. All of them so far in Nigeria have been traced to Mr. Patrick Sawyer. But we know there is nothing stopping someone coming with a fresh case from anywhere in the world.
“But for now, we are happy. Thanks to the surveillance and thanks also to providence, it is only the one brought by Mr. Patrick Sawyer now with children and grandchildren, we have to deal with.
“That’s why we say Nigeria has been successful with containment. But have we eliminated the disease? No. Because as we speak, there is a case we are still managing and that case we are still managing must also have had her own third degree contacts apart from the number of people that are still under surveillance.
“So, until we give a clean bill of health to every contact, we cannot really say that we have eliminated the disease,” Chukwu warned.
Chukwu, who had earlier given FEC and update on the war against Ebola in the country in line with the instruction of the President for weekly report, maintained that 13 cases have been reported till date in the country.
He asserted that as of yesterday, five were dead including four Nigerians, seven have been managed successfully and discharged while one person remained under treatment.
