The Federal Government has urged Nigerians not to panic over the reported Ebola case in the country, assuring them that all necessary measures have been put in place to contain the virus.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare Muhammed Ali Pate disclosed this on Wednesday, saying authorities are tracing contacts and enforcing containment measures to prevent the imported infection from spreading.
He said the patient, a woman who arrived in Abuja on an international flight from Uganda, had tested positive after being treated at a private hospital in the capital.
He said the woman is in isolation and receiving medical care, while authorities have identified 44 close contacts, including healthcare workers, caregivers and travel contacts.
Speaking after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, Pate said Nigeria was coordinating with Ugandan authorities and had activated the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s (NCDC) incident-management system.
“We have found this one case. We are doing contact tracing, and we are putting containment measures in place to ensure that it doesn’t go into our population,” he told State House correspondents.
“We have done it in 2014, and we have good public health institutions,” he said, adding that Nigerians should be reassured.
The government’s response draws on its experience containing the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, when rapid contact tracing and isolation helped limit the disease after it entered Lagos.
Pate said the NCDC and a federal task force were working around the clock.
The minister urged Nigerians to remain vigilant but avoid “a trap of hysteria or panic,” stressing that the confirmed case was imported and that authorities would provide daily updates as the situation evolves.
He also cautioned against misinformation, saying the government would be “truthful to Nigerians with the information that we receive on a daily basis,” and urged the public to rely on trusted public-health sources.
The case comes amid a wider regional Ebola emergency.
Ugandan officials have said they have no confirmed active Ebola cases, while health officials continue to investigate the patient’s travel history and possible exposures.
