How did Nigeria "stop" its Ebola outbreak? (Blog #3)

  
  After 6 weeks of no new Ebola cases reported, the World Health Organization has declared Nigeria Ebola free. How did this happen? It's important to know how Ebola is spread throughout a population and how it arrived in Nigeria in the first place. Ebola is not airborne, but it is rather spread through bodily fluids. This means you cannot contract it if an infected person breathed on you, but you could get it through an infected person's saliva, urine, vomit, blood, and other bodily fluids that are able to spread through your mucus glands. The virus spread from Liberia to Nigeria through one man who flew in without knowing he was ill.

   Upon revealing he had Ebola, those who were in direct or indirect contact with him who could have contracted the disease were found and tracked using a health-care surveillance structure. This system was set up in Nigeria originally to track polio patients, but has recently been used to track those who came in contact with Ebola victims as they went through their 21 day surveillance for any signs of the disease. After these people, a total of about 300, completed this period of surveillance, they were removed from the system as possible victims and Nigeria is now a clean country, according to the Health Minister of Nigeria. 



A man is tested for Ebola using Nigeria's health-care system.