By NEWSCOUNT Desk
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has justified its decision to pay ₦100,000 weekly to people quarantined over possible exposure to Ebola, describing the payment as a temporary emergency measure introduced after some of those affected threatened to leave the quarantine facilities.
The Director-General of NCDC, Dr Jide Idris, gave the explanation on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, saying the agency introduced the allowance to address complaints from people who were unable to attend to their businesses and family responsibilities while in quarantine.
Idris said the affected persons had been removed from their normal environments for public health reasons and that the authorities had to consider their welfare to ensure they complied with quarantine requirements.
“Those people who were in the quarantine area, there are people who never planned to be there. We took them out of their comfort zones to put them there for public health reasons,” he said.
The NCDC boss explained that the agency was already paying for their accommodation and feeding but some of the contacts complained that they had families to support and businesses to run.
He said some of them threatened to leave the facilities because of the financial difficulties arising from their absence, a situation that could undermine efforts to prevent the spread of the disease.
“If you allow them to leave the place, it’s a public health issue because you don’t know whether they will turn positive or who is ill,” Idris said.
He explained that the weekly allowance was introduced to ease the pressure on the affected persons and encourage them to remain in quarantine for the required period.
Idris stressed that the payment was not part of the agency’s original budget but was introduced in response to the emergency.
“It’s a temporary thing because it’s not something we’ve done,” he said.
He also stated that state governments were expected to provide quarantine facilities and the resources required to manage people identified as contacts during public health emergencies. According to him, the NCDC had to intervene because the expected support was not forthcoming.
The allowance followed Nigeria’s confirmation of an imported Ebola case in the Federal Capital Territory on October 20, the country’s first confirmed case since the 2014 outbreak.
The agency initially identified 53 primary contacts linked to the case, but the number later rose to 54 following the identification of an Uber driver who transported the patient to a hospital.
The contacts include healthcare workers, domestic staff, the patient’s husband and other persons who may have been exposed to the virus.
Health authorities are monitoring the contacts for 21 days after their last possible exposure, in line with the incubation period of the disease.
The NCDC has stressed that being identified as a contact does not mean that a person has Ebola, explaining that the monitoring process is intended to detect any possible infection early and prevent further transmission.
The agency said the financial support would be reviewed as the emergency response progresses.
