Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Muhammed Ali Pate, has urged Nigerians not to panic over the Ebola outbreak, assuring that the Federal Government has the capacity to contain the disease.
Pate spoke on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa after meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The minister had earlier confirmed that a woman who recently arrived in Nigeria on an international flight from Uganda tested positive for Ebola after receiving treatment at a private hospital in Abuja.
Speaking with State House correspondents, Pate said the Federal Government was collaborating with Uganda and relevant authorities to contain the infection and prevent further spread.
He said Nigeria had successfully managed a similar situation in 2014 and had the public health institutions needed to respond to the current outbreak.
“All I can tell you is that we are collaborating with our sister African nation of Uganda. What is important is that we have found this one case. We are doing contact tracing, and we are putting containment measures to ensure that it doesn’t go into our population.
“Federal government has competent authorities to be able to deal with this. We have done it in 2014, and we have good public health institutions. Nigerians should be reassured,” he said.
Pate urged Nigerians to remain vigilant, follow information from trusted public health sources and avoid spreading misinformation and false rumours.
He said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) had activated its incident management system, with officials working round the clock, while the task force remained active.
The minister assured that the government would provide regular and transparent updates as more information became available.
“Nigerians should be vigilant, but not panic, and people should respect public health information from trusted sources, and not spread misinformation and false rumors. We would be truthful to Nigerians with the information that we receive on a daily basis. NCDC has an incident management system.
“They are working 24/7, and the task force is also active. So we have things in place that gives us confidence that Nigeria can weather through this public health crisis, which has taken five months without happening, and we have seen other countries also deal with it,” he said.
He cautioned against public hysteria, stressing that the confirmed infection was an imported case and that containment measures were underway.
“And we will continue to take measures. If the situation changes, we’ll come out and inform Nigerians,” Pate said.
