ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan declared a
national state of emergency on Friday over the Ebola outbreak in
Africa's most populous country, and approved 1.9 billion naira ($11.7
million) of emergency funds to contain it.
Nigeria has confirmed seven
cases of Ebola in its commercial capital Lagos since a man fell sick on
arrival from Liberia, two of whom have died. Several dozen people who
came into contact with the man are under surveillance.
Jonathan's
spokesman Reuben Abati said the money would pay to "strengthen steps to
contain the virus such as ... additional isolation centers, case
management, contact tracing, deployment of additional personnel,
screening at borders, and the procurement of required items and
facilities".
The World Health
Organization (WHO) said on Friday that West Africa's Ebola epidemic
constituted an international health emergency and the virus, which has
killed nearly 1,000 people, could continue spreading for months.
A Liberian soldier, left, mans a checkpoint to control the movement of people as authorities …
Jonathan
warned against "spreading false information about Ebola which can lead
to mass hysteria, panic and misdirection, including unverified
suggestions about the prevention, treatment, cure and spread of the
virus."
He
also urged religious leaders to avoid holding large gatherings that
might spread the virus, a reference to the many "megachurches" that can
draw tens of thousands of faithful from around the West Africa region to
their services.
He asked
schools to extend their summer holidays and "urged that the movement of
corpses from one community to the other, and from overseas into the
country should be stopped forthwith".
All
deaths from sickness should be reported to the authorities, he added.
The state of emergency is expected to stay in place until the outbreak
is contained. (1 US dollar = 162.7000 Nigerian naira)
(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Crispian Balmer)
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