WHO declares Nigeria Ebola-free
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday declared Nigeria free of the Ebola virus after the country underwent two incubation periods of 21 days each without the appearance of any new cases.
"After the 42-day follow-up period and confirmation that there are no new cases, the WHO hereby officially declares Nigeria Ebola-free," Ruiz Vaz, WHO country representative in Nigeria, told a news briefing in capital Abuja.
Last week, Vaz had said Nigeria would have to wait until October 20 to be certified free of the deadly virus.
In recent months, Ebola – a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure – has killed at least 4,546 people in the three West African states of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.
Nigeria, for its part, also in West Africa, has registered eight Ebola deaths and a total of 19 infections.
Hundreds of Nigerians were placed under surveillance due to suspected contact with infected people before testing negative for the virus.
Nigeria recorded its first Ebola case on July 20 after Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian diplomat, flew into the country from Monrovia. He died in a Lagos hospital on July 24.
In a bid to curb the spread of the virus, Nigeria had declared a state of national emergency.
A tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ebola can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.
It can also reportedly spread through contact with the body fluids of infected persons or of those who have succumbed to the virus.
Anadolu Agency