Nigeria Not Yet Ebola-Free As Over 50 Contacts Of Infected Patient Remain Under Surveillance –WHO | Sahara Reporters

He clarified that the country still has about 53 persons who had contact with the patient while she was ill, adding that the rigorous tracking process is non-negotiable.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that Nigeria cannot be certified Ebola-free until it completes a mandatory 42-day surveillance protocol, revealing that 53 individuals who had contact with the recent index case are still being monitored daily.

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, the WHO Executive Director of Health Emergencies Programme, disclosed this on Wednesday while featuring on the Arise TV Morning Show, monitored by SaharaReporters.

According to Ihekweazu, the medical evacuation of the patient, who is reportedly a Swiss citizen married to a Swiss diplomat, to Switzerland was carried out at the request of the Swiss government and was not due to any shortcomings in Nigeria’s capacity to manage the case.

“For a certain group of diseases that present as viral haemorrhagic fevers, of which Ebola is one, we consider a single case as an outbreak that requires a coordinated response,” Ihekweazu explained. “The medical evacuation of the patient was at the request of her home country, not due to any deficit in Nigeria’s management capacity.”

He clarified that the country still has about 53 persons who had contact with the patient while she was ill, adding that the rigorous tracking process is non-negotiable.

“What this means is that Nigeria still has about 53 persons who had contact with the patient while she was ill. We have to follow each of them for 21 days, and then observe another 21 days, making 42 days in total, in order to declare Nigeria Ebola-free,” he stated.

Despite the ongoing surveillance, Ihekweazu commended the Nigerian government and health agencies for their swift and effective response to the outbreak.

He noted that rapid laboratory confirmation and excellent case management were carried out “more or less to the letter.”

“Lab confirmation happened very quickly. We had a sequence happen very quickly. So I think appropriate measures have been carried out. Nigeria’s going to be proud of the response so far,” he said.

Addressing concerns about whether political rallies and public gatherings should be restricted, the WHO official emphasized that the global health body’s recommendations are based purely on technical assessments, not politics.

“We haven’t advised for any restriction of further gatherings. Our advice is never political. It’s always technical. And we will continue to support the government in this response,” he said, urging Nigerians to trust the government and relevant health agencies and not to politicise the event.

Turning to the wider Ebola situation in Africa, Ihekweazu painted a grim picture of the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), describing the situation as “very dire.”

He disclosed that the DRC has recorded about 10,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths, with 50 to 80 new confirmed cases reported daily. The outbreak has affected eight provinces, equivalent to eight states in Nigeria, spanning over 1,000 square kilometres, and is now in its sixth month.

“At the moment, there are over 2,000 active beds, over 25 labs. The communication around the outbreak-affected areas with the community is very intense. So the response is scaling,” he said.

Despite the grim statistics, there is a glimmer of hope as vaccine trials for three candidates recently commenced in the DRC, led by the country’s National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB).

“Last week, there was finally some good news. Together with many partners, we supported the government to start vaccine trials for three vaccine candidates in the DRC,” Ihekweazu said. “If we get this vaccine and the trials are successful by the end of the year, this will be the fastest development of a new vaccine for Ebola that has ever happened.”

He called for solidarity among African nations, noting that cases have already been exported to Uganda and Kenya, which both responded appropriately.

“It’s very unlikely that we’re going to prevent outbreaks from happening. So what you have to do is all the diligent work that our national public health agencies do in case time to prepare and respond,” he said, stressing the need for governments to invest in human capacity, surveillance systems, and emergency operations centres.

Reflecting on his tenure at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Ihekweazu stated that the country’s surveillance infrastructure had been digitised for real-time reporting.

He noted that Nigeria could further strengthen its disease surveillance by applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the existing public health data systems.

“I am confident that these systems have been developed even further since I left it five years ago… with the infrastructure we left behind, there’s no reason why at this point in time, we have not applied even further tech and the opportunity that AI provides to the tools we built up over many years,” he said.

However, he warned that AI is only as good as the data collected and the people analyzing it.

“In order to apply artificial intelligence to your data, you have to collect the data in the first place, standardise the data collection, and provide it to those that need to use it to make decisions. So it’s the people. More than the AI, it’s the people, the expertise that needs constant development,” he said.

Nigeria has a track record of effectively containing viral haemorrhagic fevers. In 2014, the country was widely praised globally for its rapid and coordinated response to the Patrick Sawyer case, which prevented a widespread Ebola outbreak in Lagos, a city of over 20 million people.

The swift action by the Nigerian government, the NCDC, and the Lagos State government, along with the efforts of Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh was credited with saving the country from a catastrophic epidemic.