Just when we were bracing up to shout: Hurrah, that we, as a nation, have been able to contain the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak, the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, made the heart-dampening announcement, last Thursday, that another Ebola death had occurred in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.

According to Chukwu, the victim was a medical doctor who treated one of the patients that had contact with the human vector of the plague to Nigeria, Patrick Sawyer. With this announcement, it is back to the trenches. The situation is even more uncertain, as the nation did not have the Port Harcourt case in its sights all along. The health authorities have no choice than to launch a new dragnet to bring in a new group of people who had contacts with this doctor and his circle of contacts into quarantine.

The good part of the story is that Ebola is no longer a stranger among us. It is no longer a mystery outbreak for which we need panic, as many of us did when it made its first landfall in our country. Nigerians down to the grassroots now know the necessary steps to take in order to protect themselves from this killer infection which, till date, does not have any surefire cure.

The federal government obviously attaches great importance to the need to overcome this Ebola outbreak, and has ordered that all primary and secondary schools at both state and federal levels, including public private outfits, must remain closed till October13,2014, while all summer educational activities must be suspended forthwith.

We appeal to the Rivers state government to emulate their Lagos state counterpart, to eschew partisan politics and cooperate with the Federal Ministry of Health to ensure that the same level of success in the Lagos sector, which has been acclaimed worldwide, is achieved in Rivers. That should be the way forward anywhere this disease shows its ugly head.

The Ebola outbreak is a bold illustration of the fact that humanity is linked together, and must join hands when faced with a danger to all.

Even long after the authorities have declared Nigeria free of Ebola, this infectious disease will continue to be a threat so long as it still exists in any part of the world. Such threat will only go away when an effective cure has been developed, or better still an efficacious vaccine invented to tackle it like others we have experienced through history.

We must encourage one another to maintain lifestyles that will keep diseases, including Ebola, at bay, such as good personal and environmental hygiene, avoiding contact with some animals and reporting common symptoms to the appropriate authorities.