Ebola Update: US Yet To Ask For Assistance

 

THE Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu on Monday said there had been no formal request from the United States for Nigeria’s assistance in combating the Ebola Virus disease.

“As at Friday really, there was no formal request by the United States, for assistance in the containment of Ebola Virus Disease”, the minister, who spoke through his Special Assistant (Media and Communications), Mr. Dan Nwomeh, said during an enquiry by our correspondent on Monday in Abuja.

The US had last week recorded its first case of EVD in circumstances similar to the importation of the virus to Nigeria by the Liberian-born American Diplomat, late Mr. Patrick Sawyer.

Thomas Duncan, the first person to have been diagnosed with EVD in the US, is said to be fighting for his life in a hospital in Dallas. Based on the feat recorded by the Federal Government in the containment of EVD in Lagos and Port Harcourt, speculations had been rife that the President Barak Obama’s administration would seek the intervention of Nigeria. 

The EVD case in US was recorded in Dallas, and was from a patient who had reportedly flown in from Liberia. A statement from the Director of Centre for Disease Control and the Texas Health Department, Dr. Tom Frieden, said the patient had been hospitalised while contact tracing had commenced.