Nigeria ‘not 100% ready’ for possible Ebola emergency, says NCDC

NCDC DG, Dr. Jide Idris. | Photo credit: Nigeria Health Watch

Nigeria’s preparedness for a potential Ebola outbreak currently stands at 59%, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Jide Idris, has revealed, as health authorities intensify surveillance and response measures amid growing concerns over the disease’s regional and international spread. Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, Idris said a recent assessment of the country’s readiness exposed critical gaps that authorities are working to address, particularly at points of entry into the country. “Our recent latest level of assessment puts us at about 59%. But that’s quite variable. You can’t be 100% prepared, but the essence is that we keep preparing because things change,” he said. The NCDC chief said a dynamic risk assessment was conducted to determine Nigeria’s preparedness level, identify vulnerabilities and strengthen response mechanisms against any potential importation of the virus. “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,” he said. According to Idris, the Federal Ministry of Health has already issued protocols for relevant government agencies aimed at tightening controls on international arrivals, particularly through airports. “Luckily, a day or two after, there was a protocol 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 identified Nigeria’s porous land borders as a more significant vulnerability, warning that travellers entering by road present a major surveillance challenge. “But 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. Idris pointed to Nigeria’s successful containment of the 2014 Ebola outbreak as a key source of lessons for current pr