Chad Closes Borders With Nigeria

The Chadian government has said it will follow in South Africa's
footsteps and introduce travel restrictions to Nigeria and other
countries suffering from the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak.

Prime Minister Kalzeubet Payimi Deubet said the country would close
its border with Nigeria as part of efforts to prevent Ebola from
entering the country.

He said the decision would have an "economic impact" on the region,
but it was necessary for "public health needs."

This announcement by Chad comes after South Africa banned entry to the
country to all non-citizens travelling from Sierra Leone, Liberia and
Guinea, while Liberia has quarantined entire neighbourhoods to try to
stop the spread of the deadly virus.

But, the World Health Organisation officials have warned that the
suspension of flights and imposition of travel restrictions are
unhelpful and could undermine the capacity to respond. While advising
countries to perform exit screening at airports, seaports and major
border crossings, the WHO is against any ban on international travel
or trade.

Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman said, "If you try to shut down air
travel and sea travel, you risk affecting to a huge extent the
economy, people's livelihoods and their ability to get around without
stopping the virus from traveling. You can't ship goods in; sometimes
these goods are basic staples people need to survive, food and fuel."

He emphasised that official border closures would constrain resources
to address the epidemic and would not stop all means of travel outside
of affected areas.

According to a representative for the WHO Travel and Transport Task
Force, Daniel Menucci, the travel ban will restrict humanitarian
efforts and create more problems than it will solve.

He said, "Any discontinuation of transport will affect humanitarian
aid, doctors, nurses and human resources entering the country, the
transfer of biological sampling and equipment for hospitals; all of
this needs international transporting, international airlines. This
will create more problems in helping the countries most affected."