The
United States government has pleaded with Nigeria to extend its
assistance to three other countries in the West African sub-region that
have been grappling with the Ebola Virus Disease.
The American Under Secretary of State on
African Affairs, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who stated this in
an interview with journalists on Thursday during a courtesy visit to
the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said there was the need
for Nigeria to assist Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the fight
against the disease.
She was, however, evasive on why President Barack Obama’s administration refused to assist Nigeria with ZMapp drugs.
She said the US was proud of the way
Chukwu, the Federal Health Ministry members of staff and the Federal
Government had effectively been working hard to deal with the EVD
outbreak in Nigeria.
Thomas-Greenfield said, “They are taking
all the right steps to control this. And they are having great success
here. I appealed to the minister to assist neighbouring Liberia,
Sierra-Leone (and Guinea) as they also grapple with this terrible
outbreak.”
She however said it was not true that the US government had failed to assist Nigeria with ZMapp drugs.
“That is not correct; I think the Centre
for Disease Control has proactively supported all the countries in the
West African region in dealing with the situation. It is not about
Zmapp,” she said.
In his response, Chukwu said, “Nigeria
helped and founded ECOWAS. You remember it was during Gen. Yakubu Gowon,
when he was Head of State, that ECOWAS was established. Nigeria will
continue to play that leading role in ECOWAS. We are going to assist our
sister nations. Let me also reaffirm that the United States has fully
been part of the battle to contain the Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria.
US CDC has done wonderfully well.
“Even if you go remotely, part of the
infrastructure we have in Nigeria was because US CDC worked with Nigeria
to get them established. So, we are grateful to the US government, and
the support continues to come in. Even some of the hand-held infrared
thermometers we are using were provided by the US government
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