Leone to help with the response to the outbreak of the deadly Ebola
virus.
The workers, who include doctors, scientists and hygienists, have been
trained by the medical aid agency, MSF.
It came a day after residents in the Guinean capital, Conakry,
protested about the construction of an Ebola treatment clinic in their
district.
The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 6,000 people in West Africa this year.
The Nigerian medical workers are the first part of a contingent of
about 250 specialists the West African country is deploying to the
three countries worst hit by Ebola - Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The workers are expected to stay for between three and six months,
Nigerian officials say.
The BBC international development correspondent, Mark Doyle, says it
is a reminder that although richer countries and the big aid agencies
have been giving crucial help, Africans are very much part of the
fight against Ebola too.
According to the World Health Organization, Ebola transmission remains
intense in Sierra Leone
The Nigerian commitment is part of an African Union promise to send
1,000 medical workers to Ebola-hit areas by the end of this year.
Malaria warning
The deployments come amid a UN warning that people infected with
malaria in Sierra Leone are sometimes not seeking care for fear of
being shunned as suspected Ebola cases.
Medical experts say the symptoms of both diseases can be similar in
their early stages and there are also fears that some people are being
referred unnecessarily to Ebola treatment centres.
There are sanitary checkpoints in Sierra Leone where temperatures are
checked and people wash their hands
The UN agency, Unicef, has said it will supply anti-malarial drugs to
about 2.4 million people in Sierra Leone.
Under the programme, thousands of community health workers will go
door-to-door in districts where the risk of Ebola is highest to
administer anti-malarial tablets to everyone aged six months and
above.
"This campaign will benefit the fight against both malaria and Ebola,"
said Unicef local representative Roeland Monasch, by reducing cases of
malaria, easing the strain on the health system and allowing true
cases of Ebola to be treated.
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
*.Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
*.Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva
*.Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality
rate of about 70%
*.Incubation period is two to 21 days
*.There is no proven vaccine or cure
*.Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and
vomiting can help recovery
*.Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be
virus's natural host
On Thursday, people in the Yimbaya district of the Guinean capital,
Conakry, staged protests about the construction of an Ebola treatment
centre, fearing it may spread disease in their neighbourhood.
The project is being funded by the French government, which has said
it will help fight Ebola in Conakry and benefit local residents.
Similar protests took place two months ago in another district, Kaporo
Rail, where the centre had been initially planned to be built.
Meanwhile, a clinic in the German city of Frankfurt said a Ugandan
doctor it had treated for Ebola was free of the disease and had been
released last month.
The doctor, who had been working in Sierra Leone, had undergone seven
weeks of intensive treatment in an isolation ward.
--BBC
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