The outbreak of the Ebola Virus in Uganda which was declared by the Ugandan Ministry of Health on 30th January, 2025 is a threat to Africa.The disease was brought into Nigeria in July 2014 by an infected airline passenger who arrived Nigeria through Lagos International airport .The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Nigeria Ebola-free on October 20, 2014 after several medical attempts to fight the disease.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eight people died from the 20 cases that occurred in Nigeria . Shortly after the recent outbreak in Uganda, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) released a public health advisory.The Centre’s Director General, Dr. Jide Idris stated that there are no cases of Ebola virus disease in Nigeria. He assured that the NCDC, in collaboration with relevant Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and Partners through the National Emerging Viral Hemorrhagic Diseases (EVHD) Technical Working Group, continues to monitor disease occurrence and has initiated measures to strengthen the country’s preparedness.
According to him, the preparedness include the update of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) emergency contingency plan, heightened surveillance especially at the points of entry, and optimizing diagnostic capacity for EVD testing in designated laboratories in cities with international airports of entry and the National Reference Laboratory. He added that all Lassa Fever testing laboratories can be activated to scale up testing if the need arises.
Dr. Idris explained that the infection is transmitted from animals to humans, with human-to-human transmission occurring through direct contact with the body fluids (blood, saliva, vomit, urine, feces, sweat, breast milk and semen of an infected person), contaminated objects, infected animals such as fruit bats, chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, porcupines and forest antelope. Furthermore, he said the virus can also be transmitted through contact with wildlife and unsafe burial practices as the incubation period, i.e. from exposure to the development of signs and symptoms ranges from 2-21 days. He said during an outbreak, those at risk of infection are health workers, family members and others in close contact with sick people and deceased patients.
The NCDC boss announced that initial symptoms of EVD include: sudden onset of high fever, accompanied by other nonspecific signs and symptoms such as headache, body aches, muscle pain and weakness, vomiting and diarrhea, Jaundice (yellowing of the eye) and that in severe cases, there could be uncontrolled bleeding from orifices, dysfunction and / or failure of several body organs such as the kidneys, liver, central nervous system involvement, progressing to shock and death.He said in fatal cases, death often occurs between 8 and 9 days of the onset of symptoms.
He reassured that the Centre will continue to strengthen surveillance across the country, including the borders and airports especially for travelers from affected areas while alerting health workers to heighten their level of suspicion for suspected cases, enhancing laboratory capacities for quick testing of suspected cases as well coordination with the WHO and the African Regional Health Authorities to monitor developments and share critical information.
Speaking on measures to prevent the disease, Akyala Ishaku, a professor of infectious diseases and Public Health Epidemiology , Director of Global Health and Infectious Disease Control Institute at Nassarrawa State University,
during a broadcast interview advised that Nigerians should not travel to endemic areas such as Uganda itself and countries that border Uganda.
He opined that we need to heighten surveillance in Nigeria on points of entry, be it land, sea, and also air.
He stated that there is no institute in Nigeria or a research institute that works on Ebola, post COVID and even post Ebola.He suggested that the specialized mobile labs within a component can be initiated at the borders where the turnaround time for testing of most of the infectious diseases can be reduced. He said that drones can be sent to man the borders.
Mr. Ishaku pointed that Nigeria borders seem to be porous because surveillance satellites on point of entry is not heightened and this should bring about a national conversation on the need to brace up for the challenges ahead.
He advocated for local health corps that will respond to outbreaks of health emergencies at the local level and the provision of Centre for disease control in every state .
“We don’t have anyone working on Ebola.How many of our universities and institutes are working on Ebola ,COVID and Post COVID? Except one, the Redeemer’s University, which is being headed by Professor Happi, a Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics in the Department of Biological Sciences.
“We intend to see that they have the specialized mobile labs within a component where they can reduce the turnaround time for testing of most of these infectious diseases. We can also send drones to man our borders. With the issue of Artificial Intelligence now, we can be able to do a lot of diagnostic testing. There are a lot of biotechnological AIs that are diagnostic embedded.
“I traveled to Uganda recently. At the airport in Kigali, they asked me to use my smartphone to snap a barcode. When I snapped, they asked me to input my passport number and all my details by default. As I was walking, a thermometer that was hanged kicked my temperature. As I moved into the hall, they asked me whether I still want to do MPOG tests or COVID tests.I said yes. They took my samples. Till today, they are still testing for COVID at borders, at entry points in Kigali. When we traveled back home, we didn’t see anything like that. I was expecting to see ports health medical personnel doing some sort of checks, either using a thermometer to pick our temperature or even a form for us to fill. There was none. Beyond Ebola, there are a lot of infectious diseases that drive us. The drivers are international or globalization or international travels. It is quite key that we look into that at our borders, and points of entry.
“Just like the way we talk about community policing, there is need for us to have local people at the grassroots that should be able to pick up any disease outbreak at our locality. Those that will mount our borders at local community levels should be able to report cases that are quite of national security in terms of health and also global health security.
Mrs. Victoria Akinpelu, Principal Environmental Health Technologist, Apapa Port Health said a joint stakeholder meeting with other security agencies at the port to discuss ways of preventing infectious diseases from coming into the country through the port.
She said ” We have terminal operators and each terminal has a clinic where in case of emergency they can take them to the clinic. But what we just do is once they arrive, is to go on board carry out inspection on the vessel after they have just arrived.”
Nigeria health care system and surveillance needs to be strengthened in order not to be thrown into another state of emergency which will affect the nation negatively.
