The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole has allayed the fears of Nigerians about Zika virus that is ravaging some countries.
Adewole made this known in Abuja on Monday, adding that the virus had been in Nigeria since 1954 and could not harm the citizens.
According to him, Nigerians had developed strong resistance to the virus, adding, “The virus should be ignored.”
The virus, which is ravaging South America and part of Caribbean has recorded a death in the US through sexual intercourse. Zika has killed three persons in Colombia.
Brazil has been battling the largest Zika outbreak yet, with more than a million people infected. But the virus has been identified in 20 other countries and territories in South and Central America and the Caribbean, including Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico.
Until recently, few people had heard of Zika. As of 2013, it had never been recorded in the Western Hemisphere. By 2014, the virus made an appearance in the Americas, arriving in the Easter Islands, and then it showed up in Brazil.
Now, the World Health Organization says it’s “spreading explosively” throughout the Americas, and the agency warned that it’s expected to reach nearly every country in the Americas.