Nigeria screens air travellers as HMPV spreads to more countries
By Kasim Isa Muhammad
Kanempress News
7th January 2025
Nigeria has strengthened surveillance at major international airports to guide against the outbreak of Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) recently discovered in China.
Kanempress reported on Monday that the Minister of Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, had directed port health officers to begin to check arriving passengers for any symptom of the virus.
Kanempress also reported that screenings have begun at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA), Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is expected to issue a circular on the issue particularly to airlines on the need to put in place necessary checks on the passengers.
Already a source at the MMIA said, “There is no cause for alarm as the Port Health Service has been mandated to start screening the passengers and we are not taking anything to chance. The Port Health Officers are conducting the right check on passengers of foreign airlines as they arrive into the country.”
Kanempress recalled that during the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, Nigeria recorded its first confirmed case in a 44-year-old Italian Citizen who had arrived in MMIA at about 10 pm on February 24, 2020, via a Turkish airline from Milan Italy.
On the actions being taken by the NCAA, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, promised to reach the media.
Virus spreads to India, Malaysia, others
There has been mixed global concern over the spread of the new virus.
On Monday, Kanempress gathered that the virus was had spread to India, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Kazakhstan.
Neighbouring countries are keeping a tab on the situation.
Over 5,000 people were recently reported hospitalised in the United Kingdom as a result of the virus.
The first case of HMPV was reported over the weekend and it is said to be rising.
Reports say the spike in cases coincides with colder weather and increased indoor activity, conditions, which typically fuel the spread of respiratory viruses with health experts, saying the surge is consistent with seasonal trends.
Cases were also said to be surging in the UK as the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) weekly National flu and COVID-19 surveillance report found that rates of HMPV have increased slightly to 4.5 per cent.
The highest positive rate was among those five-years-old and younger at 10 per cent.
