World Health Organization (WHO) will soon declare the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease over in Nigeria and Senegal after 42 days with no infections.
The 42 days is the standard period for declaring an outbreak over, twice the maximum 21-day incubation period of the virus.
However, one of the discoverers of the deadly virus said on tuesday that sex could keep the Ebola epidermic alive even after the WHO declares an area free of the disease.
" In a covalescent male, the virus can persist in semen for at least 70 days; one study suggests persistence for more than 90days, the WHO said in an information note on Monday.
"Certainly, the advice has to be for survivors to use a condom, to not have unprotected sex, for 90 days,/ said Peter Piot, a professor at the London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine and a discoverer of Ebola in 1976.
This was contained in a statement signed and issued on Tuesday by the Director of Information in the Ministry of Health, Mrs. Ayotunde Adesugba.
Africa’s biggest economy appears to have effectively contained the virus, which was imported into the country by one Liberia-American, Patrick Sawyer, in July.
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Adesugba noted that “It is, therefore, expected that the World Health Organisation (WHO) will soon officially declare the EVD over in Nigeria.”
The country recorded seven deaths while the virus scare lasted.
Meanwhile, health experts are expected to gather in Abuja on Thursday for a high level stakeholders’ meeting on EVD in the country.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, will declare open the meeting arranged under the auspices of the Treatment Research Group (TRG) on the Ebola Virus Disease.
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