Following the reports that about eight children may likely die of malnutrition in Borno state, the Federal Government has ordered the National Centre for Disease Control to deploy “a rapid emergency team” to the area.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, gave the order to the Director-General of NCDC, Prof. Abdusalami Nasidi on the occasion of the opening ceremony and inaugural meeting of the governing board of the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Disease Control.

In his words, “There is a nutritional emergency in Borno State where it has been reported that eight children stand the risk of dying every day if nothing is done to arrest the situation. President Muhammadu Buhari has given a directive and so this is my first assignment to you. There is a need to send an emergency team to Borno State.”

RCDC was established in Nigeria because of the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease  in West Africa.

He stated that the outbreak of Ebola brought to the fore the defect inherent in our health sytems and the lack of readiness to take immediate action to EVD and any other disease that may pose health threat in line with has been listed by the international health regulations.

“Since 2015, other significant new threats such as Lassa Fever, Yellow Fever and Zika Virus outbreaks, have been experienced in the region. Nigeria’s role in curtailing the spread of these diseases in our region is acknowledged by ECOWAS’ decision to site the RCDC here,” he said.

The Federal Government, the West Africa Health Organisation and the NCDC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the actualisation of the ECOWAS RCDC.