Twenty-one persons are suspected to have contracted the Ebola Virus Disease and are under surveillance in Enugu State, South-East Nigeria.

Confirming this after today’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, told reporters that one of the nurses, who had contact with the index patient, late Patrick Sawyer, had traveled to Enugu State contrary to instructions and had had contact with the 21 persons.

According to Mr Maku, 198 Nigerians have been traced to have contacted the virus. While 177 are in Lagos, 21 persons in Enugu are being watched.

The FEC devoted this week’s meeting to the efforts being made to combat the Ebola Virus which entered Nigeria some 23 days ago and had been declared a National Emergency.

At the meeting, the Minister of Health, Dr Onyebuchi Chukwu, told the council that Nigerians had been on the alert even before late Sawyer entered Lagos with the virus.

He told reporters that he was in touch with all the Commissioners for Health and that the Governors of the 36 states and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory had been called for a meeting with the President, an indication that the government was taking the case serious.

He said a committee had been set up to handle the claims by many Nigerians that they have a cure for the ailment and called on Nigerians not to panic, as the government was in touch with the rest of the world on the possible cure for the disease.

The Nigerian government had requested for an untested drug, Zmapp, believed to be efficient in the treatment of Ebola virus from the United States but had not gotten any concrete response.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization supported the use of untested drugs for the treatment of the disease, which the Nigerian government said its outbreak was a National Emergency.

As part of efforts to contain the disease, which had claimed three lives in Lagos State, President Goodluck Jonathan had set up an intervention plan with N1.9 billion approved for the control of the disease.

The Federal Government had urged those who had primary contact with the index patient to report themselves so that they could be quarantined.

•Adapted from a Channels TV report. Photo shows doctors caring for an Ebola patient.

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