World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare Nigeria Ebola-free today!

The World Health Organisation is preparing to announce that Nigeria has not had a confirmed case of Ebola for 42 days – or two incubation periods of 21 days – just as it did for Senegal on Friday.

WHO on Friday declared Senegal free of Ebola after 42 days passed without a new confirmed case.

“WHO officially declares the Ebola outbreak in Senegal over and commends the country on its diligence to end the transmission of the virus,” the UN health agency had said in a statement.

The benchmark of 42 days is twice the maximum incubation period for the disease.

A similar WHO statement on Nigeria is expected on Monday (today) after the requisite period without a new infection.

But there are warnings against any premature celebration, with complacency still a risk and luck considered to have played a part in containing the outbreak.

Close attention is being paid to how Nigeria, with an under-funded and ill-equipped health system, managed to contain the virus, as specialists look for a more effective response to control the EVD spread.

Eight people died out of 20 confirmed Ebola cases in Nigeria, with all infections traced back to the index case, the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who arrived in Lagos on July 20.