Aliko Dangote Donates N150million to boost Nigeria’s Ebola response

Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has donated N150million to help in the fight off the spread of the Ebola virus in Nigeria.


Nigeria’s effort to combat the spread of the deadly Ebola virus has received considerable support from businessman philanthropist, Aliko Dangote, with the announcement of N152, 956, 250.00 from Dangote Foundation for the establishment of a National Ebola Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at Yaba, Lagos.
The EOC is a key part of Nigeria’s response to the outbreak of Ebola on its shores. Headed by Faisal Shuaib, a US trained public health expert with extensive international experience, the center serves as the engine room of national response, providing coordinating mechanism for prevention, surveillance, patient care, tracking, data analysis and containment of the spread of the virus.
It also facilitates coordination of partners, serves as a platform to link to the medical community across the country and also internationally, especially with countries also battling the virus in West Africa.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Dangote Foundation, Mrs Adhiambo Odaga announced this at a media briefing at the Ministry of Health, Abuja on Monday. She said the money will be available for the establishment of an Ebola emergency operation center in Lagos.

“After bilateral discussion with the honorable minister and his team, Dangote foundation has funded the establishment of the Ebola emergency operation in Lagos, that is being done through grant from the foundation of just a little over N150 million,” she said. Continue…

“The strategy that our chairman is deploying is the strategy to respond and to commend government for the effort, and to show that all Nigerians are concerned. We will continue to discuss with the ministry about what additional support can be offered

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Ebola continues to spread in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigeria has one more confirmed Ebola case, a nurse who was treating the Liberian-American who flew into the country with the disease and died of it last month, the health minister announced Monday.
The nurse tested positive for the Ebola virus over the weekend, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told reporters in Abuja, the capital. That brings the total number of confirmed Ebola cases in Nigeria to 10, including two who have already died, the Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer and another nurse. The other eight cases are being treated in isolation in Lagos. All nine Nigerians were infected through direct contact with Sawyer, said Chukwu.

Nigerian authorities said Monday that a doctor in Lagos has contracted Ebola, the second case in the sprawling megacity as the deadliest ever outbreak of the disease continues to spread fear and panic across west Africa.

The confirmation that a fourth doctor had been infected comes as fear and anger about the dead being left unburied in Liberia’s capital Monrovia brought protesters into the streets, while Sierra Leone’s president said Monday that the epidemic threatened the “very essence” of the nation.

“This new case is one of the doctors who attended to the Liberian Ebola patient who died,” Nigeria’s Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told journalists.

He said that 70 other people believed to have come into contact with the Liberian government official were being monitored.
Nigerian health officials are working to prevent Ebola from spreading beyond those who had contact with Sawyer. Nigerian authorities have 177 primary and secondary contacts of Sawyer under surveillance, said Chukwu.
Ebola has killed 961 people in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

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