Lagos state health authorities have began exploring measures to reduce interaction between passengers arriving from Ebola-affected countries and other travellers passing through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport
This is to strengthen safeguards against the possible importation of the virus into Nigeria.
The proposal formed part of deliberations during a high-level inspection and preparedness exercise at the airport on Sunday, where state health officials, aviation regulators and airport authorities reviewed surveillance systems, emergency response plans and passenger screening protocols amid renewed Ebola outbreaks in parts of Central and East Africa.
The Lagos delegation was led by the Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, and included the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Dr Kemi Ogunyemi; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Dayo Lajide; Director of Epidemiology, Biosecurity and Global Health, Dr Ismail Abdus-Salam; and senior officials of the Lagos State Public Health Emergency Operations Centre.
They were received by the Airport Manager and Regional General Manager, South-West MMIA, Olatokunbo Arewa, alongside other officials.
The discussions come as health authorities across the continent heighten surveillance following the spread of Ebola in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, prompting Lagos to reassess its frontline defences at Nigeria’s busiest international gateway.
Addressing airport officials, Abayomi said Lagos was determined to preserve the efficiency of airport operations while introducing safeguards to rapidly identify and isolate potential Ebola cases.
“Our objective is to create a bottleneck for the virus, not for passengers,” he said.
He said the state was examining practical ways to limit unnecessary contact between travellers arriving from countries of concern and other passengers in the airport environment, while ensuring that airport operations remain efficient and unobstructed.
For a city that served as the entry point for Nigeria’s 2014 Ebola outbreak, Abayomi said complacency was not an option.
He recalled how the virus entered the country through an infected traveller from Liberia and threatened to trigger a major public health emergency before being contained through intensive surveillance, contact tracing and the intervention of frontline health workers.
The commissioner paid tribute to the late Dr Ameyo Adadevoh, whose actions, he said, helped prevent wider community transmission.
“The experience taught us that vigilance can never be relaxed in a globally connected world,” he said.
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Na Lagos dey first get am