The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) says all 62 contacts identified following the confirmation of an imported Ebola case in the country are expected to complete monitoring by this month.
The agency disclosed this in its latest Ebola Disease Situation Report, noting that the contacts were scheduled to complete follow-up at different times between last month and this month
Nigeria confirmed its first case of Ebola disease in the current outbreak in October after laboratory tests detected the Bundibugyo virus in a woman who travelled to the country from Uganda.
According to the NCDC, contact tracing and monitoring remain ongoing, with additional contact tracers mapped and trained to strengthen surveillance.
The report stated that the agency planned to “engage and assess additional contacts for possible evacuation to the quarantine facility” and “continue follow-up of contacts in quarantine”.
It added that the agency had held a high-level stakeholder meeting with partner organisations to strengthen coordination, resource mobilisation and accountability in the response.
Laboratory investigations
The NCDC said 18 samples had been tested since the outbreak was confirmed, with one positive result and 17 negative results.
The positive sample came from the index patient, while the negative results comprised 15 samples collected from her contacts and two from suspected cases.
The report said laboratory confirmation took place Last month while genomic sequencing was completed by the NCDC National Reference Laboratory and the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID).
The agency also said it would maintain uninterrupted Ebola testing at the National Reference Laboratory and expand testing capacity to Lagos.
On case management, the NCDC said it had engaged the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital to assess its readiness to serve as an isolation and treatment centre.
It disclosed that a needs assessment and optimisation of the hospital had been completed, while a dedicated ambulance had been secured and placed on standby for safe patient referrals.
The agency also reported that it had assessed isolation facilities and supervised the medical evacuation of the index patient, with measures taken to protect healthcare workers.
As part of its next steps, the NCDC plans to review and circulate guidelines covering triage, isolation, supportive care, psychosocial support and patient discharge.
It also plans to strengthen infection prevention and control measures across health facilities, train environmental health officers and assess isolation capacity at Karu General Hospital in the Federal Capital Territory.
The agency said it had reviewed the scope and strategy for identifying contacts and updated Ebola case definitions to improve the identification and management of suspected infections.
It also plans to develop an Ebola disease dashboard on the Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) to improve contact management.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the patient developed symptoms early in October, four days after arriving in Nigeria, and sought medical attention at a private health facility in Abuja.
Nigeria became the fifth country to detect the virus since the outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The index patient was subsequently evacuated to Switzerland in October for further medical care, alongside her husband, who was identified as a close contact.
The NCDC says it will continue coordinating response activities across relevant health sectors and strengthen preparedness in states considered at high risk of Ebola transmission.
