An excerpt from an address on October 19 by Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, to its Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean:
The Ebola outbreak that is ravaging parts of West Africa is going to get far worse before it gets any better. Health officials are still racing to catch up with this rapidly evolving outbreak that is constantly delivering surprises.
It has multiple dimensions that have never been seen in the 38-year history of this disease.
But let me tell you one positive story among so many heart-breaking ones.
When the Ebola virus was carried into Lagos, Nigeria, on 20 July, health officials all around the world trembled in anticipation of what was almost certain to be the start of the worst nightmare scenario anyone could imagine.
Lagos is Africa's most populous, fluid, and chaotic city, with a population of 23 million people constantly moving in and out.
Everyone expected a tremendous explosion of cases that would likely prove extremely difficult to control.
That never happened. In fact, tomorrow WHO will declare, with full confidence, that the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria is over. The virus is gone. The outbreak was defeated.
What accounts for this great news?
The polio programme. Nigeria is running one of the world's most innovative polio eradication campaigns, using the very latest satellite-based cutting-edge technologies to ensure that no child is missed.
The country is on track to eradicate wild poliovirus from its borders before the end of this year.
When the first Ebola case was confirmed in July, health officials immediately repurposed polio technologies and infrastructures to conduct Ebola case-finding and contact-tracing.
This is a good public health story with an unusual twist at the end.
Several wealthy countries have people right now in Nigeria. They are studying technologies, “made in Nigeria” with WHO support, to boost their contact tracing capacities should an imported case occur.
The story has another very clear message.
If Nigeria, also crippled by serious security problems, can do this - that is, eradicate polio and contain Ebola at the same time - any country in the world can do the same.
