Ebola: Nigeria has capacity to contain outbreak like 2014 – Minister

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, has assured Nigerians that the country has the capacity to contain the latest Ebola outbreak, citing its successful response to the disease in 2014.

Mr Pate gave the assurance on Wednesday after a meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, urging Nigerians to remain vigilant but not panic.

“Nigerians should be reassured. We must be vigilant, but not panic, and people should respect public health information from trusted sources, and not spread misinformation and false rumours,” he said.

Nigeria confirmed one Ebola case in the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday. The patient, a woman who recently arrived in Nigeria on an international flight from Uganda, is receiving treatment in isolation at a private hospital in Abuja.

Health authorities have identified 44 close contacts and commenced contact tracing. The contacts include healthcare workers, patients, caregivers and travel contacts.

Drawing on 2014 experience

Mr Pate said the government had activated containment measures to prevent the virus from spreading into the wider population.

“What is important is that we have found this one case. We are doing contact tracing, and we are putting containment measures to ensure that it doesn’t go into our population,” he said.

He said Nigeria’s previous experience with Ebola was one reason for confidence in the current response.

“We have done it in 2014, and we have good public health institutions,” Mr Pate said.

Nigeria’s 2014 outbreak began after Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American, arrived in Lagos in July and was later diagnosed with Ebola.

The country recorded 20 cases, including 19 laboratory-confirmed cases and one probable case, with eight deaths. The Federal Ministry of Health, Lagos State government and international partners activated an Ebola Incident Management Centre on 23 July 2014, three days after Mr Sawyer arrived, to coordinate the response.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Nigeria free of Ebola transmission on 20 October 2014 after the country completed 42 days without a new case.

Odianosen Ehiakhamen, Incident Manager for the National Ebola Disease Response and an assistant director at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), said the agency had identified officials who participated in the 2014 response and are still in the country to serve as focal persons.

“Because Nigeria had experienced this same situation in 2014, it was important for us to identify colleagues who responded and were still in the country because they are actually going to be our focal persons,” Mr Ehiakhamen said on Arise TV’s NewsNight on Tuesday.

Prepared before confirmation

Mr Ehiakhamen said the NCDC had also strengthened its preparedness months before the Abuja case was confirmed.

He said a risk assessment conducted in May initially placed the risk at a moderate level, but the agency subsequently moved to a high level of preparedness and activated an alert.

The NCDC is also monitoring the speed of the response, including the time taken from receiving an alert to reaching a health facility, collecting samples and completing laboratory testing.

Mr Pate said the NCDC incident management system and the national task force were working around the clock.

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“They are working 24/7, and the task force is also active. So we have things in place that gives us confidence that Nigeria can weather through this public health crisis,” he said.

Funding concerns

The minister’s reassurance came as lawmakers raised concerns about the resources available to Nigeria’s health agencies to respond to the outbreak.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives urged the federal government to release outstanding funds appropriated for health agencies, citing the need to strengthen surveillance, contact tracing and emergency response.

Lawmakers also raised concerns about infection prevention supplies, health-worker preparedness and emergency response capacity. The Senate separately called for the immediate release of emergency funds from the Service Wide Vote and urged stronger health screening at airports and other entry points.