NCDC names Lagos, FCT, Rivers, Kano among 10 states at high risk of Ebola importation.
By Victor Idajili
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has listed 10 states as high risk for Ebola importation due to the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
The high-risk states are Lagos, FCT, Rivers, Kano, Enugu, Borno, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Taraba, and Adamawa. Another 12 states — Ogun, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Plateau, Kogi, Niger, Jigawa, Katsina, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Abia, and Bayelsa — are at moderate risk.
NCDC Director-General Dr. Jide Idris gave the update in a public health advisory on Thursday in Abuja. He said the risk is driven by international travel, regional population movement, porous borders, and gaps in how much is known about the outbreak’s full spread.
The high-risk states sit on major trade and travel routes. They have international airports, seaports, busy land borders, and ground crossings. Because of that, the NCDC says all states must stay ready, but high-risk ones should move faster and do more.
As of the advisory, DRC and Uganda have reported 1,077 suspected cases and 247 deaths — a fatality rate of 24.6%. The 14–45 age group is most affected. Uganda has closed its borders, and Canada has paused travel applications from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Suspected cases have also been reported in India.
Nigeria hasn’t recorded any confirmed Ebola case yet. But NCDC’s risk assessment says importation risk is still high because of travel, trade routes, and the fact that early Ebola symptoms look a lot like malaria or Lassa fever.
Idris stressed there’s no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain behind the current outbreak. Existing Ebola vaccines and antibody drugs target the Zaire strain, not Bundibugyo.
That means control will depend on quick public health action: early detection, isolating suspected cases, infection control, contact tracing, safe burials, community engagement, and strong surveillance.
He added that without a strain-specific vaccine, supportive care is critical — monitoring patients, treating malaria or bacterial co-infections, managing shock, controlling symptoms, and caring for patients in designated isolation centers.
NCDC has activated its National Emergency Operations Centre on alert mode to coordinate with federal and state agencies.
Idris told state commissioners of health to activate state Ebola preparedness structures,do rapid risk checks at airports, seaports, borders, and crowded areas,train health workers to spot and report suspected cases fast,set up at least one functional isolation facility per state with clear referral routes,stock PPE, improve screening, safe sample transport, ambulance transfer, decontamination, and waste management,protect frontline workers with training, PPE, supervision, and psychosocial support
States with airports, seaports, and major borders were also told to step up traveler monitoring and surveillance.
No cases in Nigeria yet, but the NCDC wants states to treat this as a real threat and get ready before any case arrives.
