Adewole slams Kenya Airways for bringing in corpse from Ebola-hit Congo

Isaac Adewole, minister of health, has flayed Kenya Airways for transporting a corpse from Ebola-hit Democratic Republic of Congo to the country without proper documentation.

Congo is currently battling an outbreak of Ebola‎, which Nigeria successfully contained in 2014 – after Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian, imported it to the country.

Nigeria has  been on the alert since the recent outbreak in DRC Congo.

In a statement issued on Friday, the minister called for an investigation into the circumstances leading to the conveyance of the corpse to the country.

He also called for sanctions if the airline is found to have violated laid down rules in the transportation of bodies.

The corpse was brought into the country on Monday, and checks by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital indicate it is negative for Ebola.

THISDAY had reported that the corpse was quarantined by the Port Health Services (PHS) to ascertain if the young man was killed by Ebola virus.

The newspaper quoted the minister as saying that a test was conducted on the body and it revealed that the corpse was free of Ebola.