The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has directed the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority to notify local and international airlines to place 46 persons who had contact with the index Ebola patient on a no-fly list for 21 days.
The directive followed a virtual meeting Keyamo held on Wednesday with the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, to discuss measures to contain Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola case since 2014 according to a statement he shared with our correspondent.
The patient was diagnosed with the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus disease after laboratory tests confirmed the infection on October 20.
The World Health Organisation said the woman had recently travelled from Uganda to Nigeria, with her symptoms beginning on October 7, four days after her arrival. She sought treatment at a private health facility in Abuja on October 11.
According to reports from the NCDC, she was initially treated for malaria-like symptoms, but her condition failed to improve. Her travel history subsequently raised suspicion among attending doctors, prompting further investigations and laboratory testing.
The Director of Public Health Laboratory Services at the NCDC, Olajumoke Babatunde, confirmed the strain detected in the patient during an emergency incident management meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.
“We did three levels of tests, but all were molecular. The strain was Bundibugyo,” Babatunde said.
Another official at the meeting disclosed that the patient was a diplomat and that her condition had deteriorated into “multi-organ failure”. Her nationality has not been officially disclosed.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Pate, had earlier said the patient was in isolation and receiving medical care, while health authorities intensified contact tracing and other containment measures.
Keyamo said Pate provided him with details of the contacts identified during investigations.
He said, “He shared with me a list of 44 persons with whom the affected person came in contact at the hospital when she had developed the symptoms and an additional two persons who are her domestic staff.”
The minister said arrangements were being made to isolate the contacts until health authorities could establish whether they had been infected.
“Whilst efforts are ongoing to isolate them for now until there is certainty they had not been infected with the virus, the aviation authorities are required to put them on a no-fly list for at least 21 days,” Keyamo stated.
He added, “I have therefore directed the NCAA to immediately inform all local and international airlines of this development.”
The minister also ordered the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to intensify Ebola response and surveillance measures across all international airports.
“Measures already being implemented by FAAN include enhanced health screenings, temperature checks, travel history tracking, digital health declarations, and strict inter-agency coordination with the NCDC following regional outbreak alerts earlier,” he said.
The WHO confirmed that the patient had been infected with the Bundibugyo virus, a strain for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment. The agency said investigations were ongoing to establish the likely source of infection and reconstruct the patient’s full travel and exposure history.
The WHO and other partners are supporting Nigerian health authorities with case investigation, contact tracing, infection prevention and control, and the provision of essential supplies, including personal protective equipment for health workers.
The organisation has also urged countries in the region to strengthen disease surveillance, laboratory testing, rapid-response capacity and monitoring at points of entry.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person who is symptomatic, or through contact with contaminated materials. Its incubation period ranges from two to 21 days, making the identification and monitoring of exposed persons critical to containing transmission.
Nigeria’s latest case has renewed concerns about the risk of cross-border transmission amid the ongoing outbreak in parts of Africa. However, health authorities are working to identify additional contacts and prevent further spread.
Nigeria previously contained an Ebola outbreak in 2014 after the virus was introduced into the country by an infected traveller. The response involved isolation, contact tracing and coordinated action by public health authorities.
For the current case, the immediate priorities include monitoring identified contacts, strengthening infection prevention at the hospital where the patient received treatment and maintaining heightened surveillance at airports and other points of entry.