A four year old Nigerian kid, and two other Nigerians aged 79 and 37 on a visit to India were taken into medical isolation on arrival in New Delhi yesterday for Ebola screening and treatment if required.
The three Nigerians were admitted at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
The three Nigerians quarantined in India reportedly had fever and their tests were being done at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi, according to a statement.
A 32-year-old Indian from Durg in Chhattisgarh who returned from Nigeria was similarly admitted to a hospital in Bhilai. His samples are also being tested at NCDC, the statement said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said air travel, even from Ebola-affected countries, is low-risk for transmission of the disease.
The organisation has reported a total of 2,127 cases and 1,145 deaths due to Ebola from affected countries.
The Lagos State government confirmed yesterday its training of 800 volunteers to help fight the deadly Ebola epidemic that has already claimed four lives in the state.
The state government last week appealed for volunteers to make up for a shortage of medical personnel because of a six-week doctors’ strike over pay.
“People have heeded our call for service,” Hakeem Bello, Special Adviser on Media to Governor Babatunde Fashola said.
“We have trained some 800 volunteers in the area of contact tracing, sensitisation and treatment of the Ebola disease.”
Apart from the four lives claimed by Ebola in the city, six other people are infected by Ebola.
Volunteers have so far been deployed to parts of the state, Bello said, adding that more are needed to contain the outbreak, particularly to treat those infected with the disease.
Nigerian doctors have been on strike nationwide since July 1 to demand a pay rise and better working conditions.
Nigeria became the fourth West African country to be hit by the Ebola epidemic last month after Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Athletes from Nigeria have been forced to withdraw from the Youth Olympics in China as a result of the outbreak, Chinese state media reported Saturday.
The International Olympic Committee has barred athletes from Ebola-hit countries from competing in pool events and combat sports.
The disease is spread by contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids such as sweat, blood and tissue and no cure or vaccine is currently available.
Nigeria’s first fatality was Liberian government employee Patrick Sawyer, who brought the virus to Lagos on July 20. He died in hospital on July 25.
Nigeria has not recorded a case outside Lagos but there were fears that a nurse who contracted Ebola from Sawyer at the hospital may have carried the virus to Enugu.
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