Nigeria has procured vehicles to beef up patrols at the nation’s borders in an attempt to fend off further spread of the Ebola virus, officials said at the weekend.
The Minister of State for Health, Khalliru Alhassan, said in a news conference in Sokoto that the government had formed a specialised rapid response team to effectively deal with the epidemic.
According to Xinhua, the Chinese News Agency, the team is comprised of doctors, medical laboratory scientists and other professionals, which also include experts from the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) of the United States and Medicins Sans Frontiers, an international humanitarian organisation.
According to the minister, a total of 13 cases of Ebola disease had been confirmed in Nigeria and that seven had been discharged while others, including the importer of the virus, a Liberian, died.
Meanwhile, over 400 people are still under watch.
Since earlier this year, the Ebola epidemic has spread to five West African countries, namely Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal, and claimed over 1,500 lives in the region.
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