A large majority of Nigerians don’t think the health infrastructure in the country is capable to deal with the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak, according to a NOIPolls Limited survey conducted two weeks ago.
Some of the key findings in the poll include 7 out of 10 adult Nigerians (72%) are not confident in the capacity of their local hospitals to provide the needed care and manage patients with the Ebola virus.
The poll further revealed that 82% of those polled are currently more concerned about the Ebola virus disease than other infectious diseases such as HIV (8%) and hepatitis (3%); while the vast majority (91%) of respondents are aware of the recent outbreak of the viral disease.
Related: Harvard poll: 39% of US adults worry about an Ebola outbreak in America
Additionally the poll revealed that 80% of Nigerians expressed concern over the spread of the virus in Nigeria, with just over half (57%) of the respondents having confidence in the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies to protect Nigerians from the impact of the virus in the event of further spread.
Results are based on telephone interviews of a proportionate random nationwide sample, and conducted in the week of 11th to 15th August 2014. 1,006 randomly selected phone-owning Nigerians adults aged 18 years and above, across the six geopolitical zones in the country, were interviewed and the Interviews were conducted in English, Pidgin, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages. With a sample of this size, we can say with 95% confidence that the results obtained are – within a range of plus or minus 3% margin of error of the views of the source population.
