Nigeria ‘ebola-free’ as other victims clear

Norway and Spain have confirmed their two ebola victims are clear of the disease, while Nigeria has been declared free of the disease in the first good news to come in the battle against one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

The EU will fund treatment and evacuation for any infected medical staff in an effort to step up help for the affected regions of Africa and this will also apply to Irish aid workers, Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan has confirmed.

Qualified medical and care staff are desperately needed in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, the three countries most affected by the virus, but fears about their safety and treatment if they contract the disease has delayed volunteers coming forward.

EU foreign ministers declared ebola a threat to international peace and security, while Médecins Sans Frontières — which has treated up to a third of those affected — said it was one of the world’s most deadly diseases, killing up to 90% of cases, depending on which of the five strains they catch.

The UN has appealed for around €1bn to help treat and contain the disease. The EU and member states have contributed about €500m so far.

Spanish nurse Teresa Romero, who was the first person to contract the disease while working outside Africa, was treated with transfusions of blood from a person who survived the disease and so had antibodies to the virus.

She was infected when treating two missionary priests who contracted the disease in west Africa.

Oslo University Hospital did not reveal how they treated their patient, a 30-year-old Norwegian woman who was infected while working in Sierra Leone for Médecins Sans Frontières. The organisation has treated around a quarter of those infected in the region.

The World Health Organisation said that the disease had been contained in Nigeria after no new cases were reported over the last 42 days — double the incubation period for the disease.

An airline passenger coming from Liberia had introduced the disease in July, immediately spreading panic among the international and African communities.

A massive operation included building isolation units and locating 894 people who had been in touch with some of the 20 people who got the disease. Eight died, including two doctors and a nurse.

However WHO’s Nigerian director, Rui Gama Vaz, said that Nigeria, due to its a population of 160m, extensive borders, and geographical position, is vulnerable

. “The outbreak in Nigeria has been contained,” said Vaz. “But we only won a battle. The war will only end when west Africa is also declared free of Ebola.”

Ministers agreed that the EU will establish a task force and an emergency response co-ordination centre that will link up all the efforts of member states, including sharing information.

They will also help establish screening systems at the points of exit of the affected countries, share information and use visa systems information and transport carriers information to anticipate potential infected persons arriving in the EU.

One of the most immediate tasks is to get sufficient specially equipped planes to evacuate people if necessary. Germany has commissioned a Lufthansa Airbus with 20 incubation units on board, while France and Britain are taking similar steps.

However, in case the demand exceeds the available resources at any time, the ministers said that the guarantee would be “subject to available resources”.

Ireland has contributed €16m to helping aid in the region and the Irish agency, Concern, has a €36m programme and is looking for professionals to work in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Canada shipped around 1,600 doses of an experimental vaccine against ebola to a hospital in Switzerland, where they will be tried out on humans early in November.

In Texas, 43 people who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the US to die of the disease, were cleared and released from quarantine. Another 120 remain on the watch list.