The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Jide Idris, has said Nigeria’s preparedness level against a possible Ebola outbreak currently stands at 59 per cent, as health authorities intensify border surveillance and response measures amid growing regional concerns over the disease.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, Idris said health authorities are working to strengthen key response pillars, including surveillance, early detection, isolation of suspected cases and contact tracing.
“Our recent latest level of assessment puts us at about 59 per cent. But that’s quite variable. You can’t be 100 per cent prepared, but the essence is that we keep preparing because things change,” he said.
“We did a dynamic risk assessment for Nigeria basically to assess our level of preparedness, where we are, what gaps we need to cover, and then what we need to do. And very clearly, one area that came out was the point of entry, which is crucial. Because the essence—the objective—is that we should not allow this thing to come into this country.”
Highlighting preparedness measures, Idris said a protocol was released by the Federal Ministry of Health to be adhered to by different agencies of government.
“The essence of that is to control traffic into this country, especially traffic from airlines—from those airlines that were bringing patients here. That’s one. You can do the air traffic, and that’s why some states were categorized as high risk. Those states are where you have international airports, because that’s where people come in,” he said.
However, he noted that Nigeria’s porous land borders pose a greater challenge. “The biggest one again is our borders—porous borders. Not everybody comes in by air. You have people migrating by road and that kind of thing. These are the scares, and that’s why again it’s essential for us to prepare,” he stressed.
Citing the Ebola outbreak in 2014, Idris said Nigeria’s past experience showed the importance of early detection, rapid isolation of suspected cases, effective contact tracing and strong laboratory diagnosis.
“2014 was interesting because we had never had that experience before. But we were lucky to have the experience of the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control, who actually provided guidance. At the start, nobody knew what the problem was, but again, we learned as we were going along,” he said.
On Nigeria’s current preparedness, Idris said the country is not yet fully ready but is gradually strengthening its response capacity.
“To be frank, we are not 100 per cent ready, but we are improving our readiness. This is a readiness that has to cover the whole country. Now, what we are doing is that we’ve done an assessment of our situation. We sent people out to do assessments—we sent advisors to state commissioners to do an assessment of readiness, guiding them on what to do. Look at things like infrastructure, isolation centres, public health emergency operation centres, and what kind of stockpiles they have just in case they have these cases,” he explained.
Speaking on the persistent rise of Lassa fever cases in Nigeria, Idris said the disease remains a recurring public health challenge due to its seasonal nature, rodent carriers and risky human behaviours such as bushmeat consumption.
“Aside from Lassa fever, we are managing about seven to eight outbreaks in this country right now. Cholera is there, it’s killing people. Now, Lassa fever is seasonal, and each one of them has what they call carriers or reservoirs. Lassa fever is interesting because it’s carried by rats—specific rats in some areas,” he said.
He noted that cultural practices in some affected communities continue to fuel transmission despite ongoing awareness efforts. “In those areas, people regard these rats as delicacies. And there’s no amount of approach to tell them like, ‘Don’t do this, you are going to kill yourself,’ that works. Especially bushmeat.”
Idris called for stronger state-level leadership to curb the spread of Lassa fever. “And this is where, again, it brings me to: everybody relies on the Federal Government. The state governments need to take leadership of this,” he urged.
