NCDC flags Lagos, Abuja and 8 other High-risk states for Ebola preparedness alert

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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has placed Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kano, Rivers, and six other states on a high-risk preparedness alert. This proactive directive follows a dynamic risk assessment that classified Nigeria’s potential for importing the deadly Bundibugyo Ebola Virus Disease strain as high.

In a national public health advisory addressed to health commissioners across all 36 states and the FCT, the NCDC emphasized the critical need to urgently bolster surveillance, isolation capacity, and infection prevention frameworks.

This urgency aligns with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recent declaration of the escalating outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

While Nigeria has recorded no confirmed cases of the virus, the ongoing regional transmission across Central and East Africa poses a tangible threat. Current figures from the source zone indicate 1,077 suspected cases and 247 deaths, reflecting a severe case fatality rate of 24.6 percent.

The NCDC underscored that Nigeria’s high vulnerability stems from continuous international travel, dense population movements, major maritime ports, and porous land borders with informal crossings.

The agency structured its preparedness model into risk tiers based on direct exposure routes and historical transit volume. The highest risk tier encompasses 10 specific states equipped with major international transit hubs or extensive border pathways:

Lagos
Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
Rivers
Kano
Enugu
Borno
Akwa Ibom
Cross River
Taraba
Adamawa

The NCDC explicitly noted that while all states must maintain basic conta inment frameworks, these top-tier states are required to aggressively scale up diagnostic readiness and dedicated isolation units.

A primary challenge highlighted in the advisory is that the Bundibugyo Ebola strain currently lacks an approved vaccine or targeted therapeutic treatment. Existing medical countermeasures, such as the Ervebo vaccine and monoclonal antibody therapies, are engineered specifically for the Zaire Ebola strain and offer no documented protection against this particular outbreak. Consequently, early detection and structured public health interventions remain the primary line of defense.

The NCDC reminded the public that Ebola is not an airborne pathogen; transmission relies strictly on direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids, or contaminated environments of an infected person or animal.

Medical practitioners nationwide have been instructed to maintain an exceptionally high index of suspicion. The initial symptoms of Ebola, including fever, intense fatigue, muscle pain, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and hiccups, closely mimic common regional febrile illnesses like malaria and Lassa fever.

The NCDC explicitly warned health workers not to wait for advanced symptoms like unexplained bleeding before initiating isolation protocols and taking detailed travel histories.

The National Emergency Operations Centre has transitioned into an active alert mode to streamline communication and logistics between federal and state health ministries. State governments must now verify the operational readiness of both public and private clinics, focusing on contact tracing systems, personal protective equipment (PPE) distribution, safe sample handling, and rapid ambulance transfer protocols.