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The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, on Wednesday faulted calls by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) for schools to remain closed until December over the Ebola outbreak in the country.
Briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, Chukwu said that the NMA’s fear was irrational as there was no scientific basis for schools to remain closed.
He said that the Minister of Education and the State Commissioners for Education fixed the Sept. 22 resumption date based on expert medical advice from the Ministry of Health.
He said :
``The Minister of Education, after a meeting with the Commissioners for Education from the 36 states and also the secretariat for education of the FCT, have decided when public schools should open, which they have told us is Sept. 22 this year.
`` In taking dat decision, they used information that was given by the Federal Ministry of Health to the fact there is actually no reason now with the information we have at hand why schools could not resume earlier than the original date of Oct. 13.
``I think we should allow the authorities to do their jobs. It is not ordinary matter to be discussed the way we want to discuss it.
``We have allowed a football match to go on and we screened every fan in Calabar; we screened every player and everybody, even the Governor and the wife were screened.
`We don't need to close the world; we don't need to say nobody should go to work in Nigeria. There is absolutely no reason for that.
``It is what I call irrational fear; we don't need to be irrational about this.``
The NMA, through its National Publicity Secretary, Dr Olawunmi Layaki, had rejected the Sept. 22 resumption directive from the Federal Government.
Layaki said all schools should remain closed until December or early next year when all Ebola suspects under surveillance would have been cleared and certified free of the virus.
The minister said that unlike other affected countries, there was no community transmission of the disease in Nigeria.
He, however, said that the ministry had taken adequate precautionary measures to curtail the disease in case of any further outbreak.
Giving the latest update on the Ebola situation in the country, Chukwu said that confirmed cases stood at 19 since the virus came into the country in July.
He stated that 10 cases were successfully treated and discharged, adding that the last two were discharged within the week.
The minister said that the isolation wards in Lagos and Port Harcourt were currently empty as no one was undergoing treatment for Ebola in the country.
He put the number of survivors of the disease in the country at 10, comprising a member of staff of ECOWAS and the fiancé of the late doctor in Port Harcourt both of whom recovered.
Meanwhile, Chukwu said that the United States Government, through its embassy, had made some clarifications on a pledge of 30 body scanners it reportedly made to the country weeks ago.
The minister said the embassy clarified that it pledged 30 handheld infra-red thermometers and not body scanners as initially stated.
He said that the private sector had been very active in its support to the government’s efforts to fight the disease.
Chukwu announced the donation of an additional 12 body scanners by the Presidential Advisory Council on the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan.
These, he said, were in additional to the 12 pledged by the Dangote Group which it said had already been ordered.
The minister also said that the rumoured cases of the disease in Zaria, Sokoto, Kebbi, Ibadan, Delta, and the rumoured new case in Lagos were investigated and discovered to be false.
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