Nigeria Tightens Airport Screening After First Ebola Case

At Lagos airport, passengers arriving from abroad are lining up for temperature checks as Nigeria strengthens its health screening measures for international travelers.

The measures follow the first confirmed case of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, reported earlier this week.

The patient had travelled back from Uganda and passed through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, on a layover.

Among those arriving was Nigerian passenger Patrick Akwongu, who was returning from Italy via Addis Ababa told Africa News:

“Yeah, I’m scared because we have been hearing about the news the way people are dying in the Congo. So we don’t need such a case here in Nigeria because Nigeria is a crowded country. If such a thing happens here people will die like fowl, so we don’t want it.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo has faced its worst Ebola outbreak on record since May, and the virus has now also been confirmed in Kenya and Nigeria.

Related: WHO Raises Alarm Over Rapidly Spreading Ebola Outbreak In DR Congo

Uganda, which recorded 20 cases, was declared Ebola-free in August.

Bezalel Mfashingabo, who travelled from Nairobi and also stopped over in Addis Ababa, took a calmer view:

“I’m not worried at all but of course I’m taking precautions like being careful whom I am around with and I think also as a country (Kenya) having these cases recently they are also taking measures so the people who are infected they are quarantined so they are not very much you know exposed to the public, so there is no much panic there’s so much, no no panic no fear actually in Nairobi where I’m coming from.”

Health officials report that the patient is in isolation and in stable condition.

So far, 44 contacts have been identified, and authorities are stepping up efforts to trace anyone else who may have been exposed.

Experts have expressed confidence in Nigeria’s ability to prevent the virus from spreading, pointing to the country’s successful containment of an Ebola outbreak in 2014.

Still, this week brought fresh worries after it emerged that the patient was not tested until 13 days after symptoms first appeared.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has cautioned that the virus’s movement from east to west shows the continent is dealing with a “complex” Ebola outbreak.