The management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has assured Nigerians of adequate surveillance at the nation’s airports following the outbreak of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The World Health Organisation had declared an Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo on Friday.
It said at least one person had been confirmed dead due to the virus in the north-eastern part of the country.
Henrietta Yakubu, the acting general manager of FAAN, corporate affairs, told NAN on Saturday that there was no direct flight from Congo to Nigeria.
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Yakubu also said that all the preventive measures being put in place at the airports were still in place.
She said the management has informed port health officials “who are at alert at all airports” of the need to increase surveillance.
“We don’t have direct flights from Congo, we only have from Rwanda but I want to assure members of the public that we still have all preventive measures in place at our airports,” she said.
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“There are sanitisers at our arrivals with the scanning apparatus called thermal scanners being installed by the port health services. The scanners have camera monitors that display pictures aside the capturing of temperature.
“Passengers still fill that form to ensure that everybody arriving the country through our airports are not potential carriers of deadly diseases.
“The port health officials are always at alert and we will also inform them of the need to increase their surveillance. So, there is no cause for alarm.”
There was an outbreak of the virus in Nigeria in 2014, after an infected Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, entered the country.
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The disease had ravaged Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and was only recently contained in these countries.
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