Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has warned that the country is at high risk of getting Ebola brought in from Uganda, where there has been a prolonged outbreak.
Though Nigeria and Uganda do not share borders the NCDC said the large volume of travel between both countries and mix of air travel from East African countries put Nigerians at risk.
According to the NCDC, they are on alert, with a number of measures put in place to “prevent and mitigate the impact of a potential Ebola outbreak in Nigeria”.
These measures include increased surveillance and screening of passengers at airports.
Nigeria has also issued a travel advisory telling its citizens and residents that they should “avoid all but essential travel to Uganda for now until public health authorities have determined the outbreak to be contained’’ in the East African country.
But when travel to Uganda is “unavoidable”, travellers should avoid contact with “obviously sick persons or suspected cases of Ebola”, it advises.
The NCDC says passengers coming from or passing through Uganda are being followed up for 21 days from the day they arrive in Nigeria. Response teams are also on standby for deployment in case of an outbreak, it says.
Uganda has recorded more than 100 cases and 30 deaths since the outbreak began in September, and there have been fears the virus might spread to other countries.
