Around 60% of the health facilities in north-eastern Nigeria are currently being supported by one or more of the 18 health partners responding to the crisis.
WHO is working closely with these partners to support the government to deliver essential lifesaving health services, gather and analyse key health information and prepare for and respond to disease outbreaks.
WHO has a strong presence in the community in these areas thanks to a well-established polio programme which includes teams of health workers trained to work in areas of high insecurity and reach communities that no other partner can reach.
This is dependent on having the necessary laboratory capacity to quickly identify the disease,” says Dr Pierre Formenty, an expert in haemorrhagic fevers at WHO and Manager of the Emerging Dangerous Pathogens Laboratory Network.