By Destiny Obinna
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has defended the evacuation of Nigeria’s Ebola index patient to Switzerland, rejecting claims that the move reflected a lack of confidence in the country’s medical system.
The Director-General of NCDC, Dr Jide Idris, spoke on Tuesday in Abuja during a capacity-building programme for journalists on effective Ebola reporting. He also dismissed allegations that the incident could be used to impose a lockdown, restrict movement or interfere with the 2027 general elections.
Idris said the patient, who returned to Abuja from Uganda, improved clinically while in isolation and left Nigeria in a stable and conscious condition.
He cautioned against reports suggesting that Nigeria had been declared Ebola-free, explaining that the absence of a confirmed case in the country following the evacuation did not mean the outbreak event had been officially declared over.
“Within hours of WHO saying that Nigeria currently has no Ebola case, several platforms reported that Nigeria had been declared Ebola-free. It had not,” he said, adding that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had described such reports as inaccurate and misleading.
He warned that premature declarations could weaken public vigilance and discourage people from observing preventive measures.
Idris disclosed that 53 primary contacts remained under daily surveillance, with most in quarantine in Abuja and a few at home. Three contacts who developed symptoms had tested negative for Ebola.
According to him, the 42-day surveillance countdown had begun, with December 7, 2026, marking the earliest possible date for declaring the event over if no new case emerged. The WHO would validate any such declaration.
The NCDC chief also rejected demands to disclose the identities of the patient and contacts, warning that doing so could undermine contact tracing.
“A contact who is named is a contact who hides, and a contact who hides is how an imported case becomes an outbreak,” he said.
On reports concerning a weekly N100,000 welfare stipend approved for people in quarantine, Idris said the support was intended to ease the burden of family responsibilities during isolation, not to reward people for being associated with Ebola.
He acknowledged that questions about Nigeria’s preparedness, funding and contact-tracing efforts were legitimate, stressing the distinction between scrutiny and misinformation.
“Accountability is not misinformation. The difference is that a question seeks an answer, and a rumour supplies one,” he said, pledging timely responses to journalists’ inquiries.
Idris urged journalists to verify information before publication, correct false reports with comparable prominence and avoid publishing patients’ or contacts’ names, photographs and addresses.
He reiterated that Ebola spreads through contact with the body fluids of an infected person who is sick, not through the air. People without symptoms, he said, were not infectious, while healthy travellers should not automatically be treated as threats.
He advised anyone developing a fever with a relevant travel or contact history to call the NCDC’s 6232 hotline before visiting a health facility.
“The public does not need louder headlines; it needs accurate ones, repeated by voices it trusts. Those voices are yours,” Idris said.
