Nigeria contains Ebola virus

Lagos schools to resume on 8 October

Nigeria's health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu declared the country free from Ebola on 22 September, although the World Health Organization (WHO) is more cautious and describes the situation as being “contained.” Chukwu made the announcement as the final cases under surveillance for possible Ebola receive the all clear.

Nigeria's handling of the Ebola crisis comes the day after WHO published a bleak assessment of the ongoing outbreak in west Africa. Its report says that "without drastic improvements in control measures, the numbers of cases of and deaths from EVD [Ebola virus disease] are expected to continue increasing from hundreds to thousands per week in the coming months."

The Lagos governor Babatunde Fashola has now ordered all public and private schools in the state to resume academic activities on 8 October, following an extended closure over the Ebola outbreak in Lagos two months ago.

However Fashola said that teachers should start returning to schools from 22 September to facilitate the distribution and supply of preventive materials against the deadly virus.

The governor also promised that all schools in Lagos would be connected to the state water supply so that the students would have access to clean and drinkable water. Fashola emphasised the importance of personal hygiene, particularly washing hands, in helping to eradicate Ebola.

The disease was spread to Lagos in late July by a Liberian man who collapsed on arrival at the city's airport and subsequently died of the virus at a Lagos hospital.

The WHO said that Senegal has also managed to contain Ebola which has killed almost 2,800 people since the outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013.

Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are still affected while a separate Ebola outbreak has killed 40 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo since mid-September.