[LINK] "How Nigeria contained its Ebola outbreak"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC's Mark Gollom reports on Nigeria's swift and apparently successful response to Ebola. A quick response by a functioning state was key, explaining why Nigeria has been spared the horrors of Liberia and its immediate neighbours.

Nigeria recorded 19 laboratory-confirmed Ebola cases and one probable one in two Nigerian states, and nearly 900 patient contacts were identified and followed since mid-July when the outbreak took off, the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control (CDC) said in a statement this week. Meanwhile, there have been no new cases since Aug. 31, "strongly suggesting the outbreak in Nigeria has been contained," CDC said.

Marty said Nigeria was fortunate in that the Liberian-American who brought in the disease by plane to Lagos back in July was suspected of having Ebola.

According to the CDC, Nigerian authorities took swift action, putting him into isolation and then determining he had exposed 72 people on commercial aircraft, at an airport and at a hospital. They immediately began tracing those he may have had contact with, and created an incident management centre, which later became the emergency operations centre for the disease.

The disease didn't spread rapidly, in part, because it was mostly limited to the wealthier population of Nigeria, said Marty, who is also director of the Florida International University's Health Travel Medicine Program

"The person who brought the infection was a diplomat," Marty said. "He was brought to one of the best hospitals in Nigeria, and the people who were infected were individuals who quickly comprehended the importance of following our recommendations."

Nigeria is also vastly more politically stable and economically affluent than other West African countries, having not suffered years or decades of civil strife.