Nigeria has completed the 21-day monitoring period for all 62 contacts linked to the country's reported Ebola case, with none of them falling ill, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said on Friday, in a Reuters report from Abuja. The last contact under surveillance was discharged on Friday, the agency said, confirming that no secondary transmission had been recorded.

Source: Reuters

Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case in more than a decade on October 20, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The patient was a Swiss woman who had travelled to Uganda and then returned to Nigeria, Reuters reported. NCDC Director-General Dr Jide Idris told a briefing in Abuja that the case was of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus disease, and that it was detected after healthcare workers raised an alert through the agency's event-based surveillance system, prompting an investigation involving FCT health authorities and other institutions.

Source: Banky TV Media (NCDC briefing)

Thirteen of the 62 contacts reported fever or other non-specific symptoms during the monitoring period, but laboratory tests confirmed that none of them had contracted the virus, Idris said. The agency also investigated seven suspected cases reported over the past three weeks in Adamawa, Rivers, Borno, Lagos and Ekiti states, and all seven tested negative for Ebola.

Patient recovered after treatment in Switzerland

Giving an update on the index case, Idris said the patient initially received medical attention in Nigeria before being evacuated to Switzerland on October 26 for further treatment. Tests on her arrival in Switzerland confirmed she was still positive for the virus, but she subsequently recovered, tested negative and was discharged from hospital. He dismissed suggestions that the evacuation showed a lack of confidence in Nigeria's healthcare system, saying the private hospital where she was first treated had managed her condition properly.

The Mandate Secretary of the FCT Health Services and Environment Secretariat, Adedolapo Fasawe, said the initial alert was raised by a private health facility after its medical team reviewed the patient's travel history and suspected Ebola. The FCT Rapid Response Team was immediately deployed to the hospital, and members of that team also completed a three-week isolation period and remained healthy, she said.

Not yet Ebola-free, NCDC warns

The NCDC cautioned against interpreting the completion of contact monitoring as a formal declaration that Nigeria is free of Ebola. Under World Health Organization (WHO) protocols, a country must complete a full 42-day countdown from the recovery or departure of its last confirmed patient before an official end-of-outbreak declaration can be made — and, Idris noted, only the WHO can make that declaration. Heightened surveillance would continue, he said, particularly as Ebola cases are still being reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Despite the milestone, the agency's Emergency Operations Centre remains activated, with its Incident Management System operating at Level 3, the highest response level for Ebola. All 36 states and the FCT have been brought into the national preparedness framework, although readiness varies, and 10 states with international airports and land borders were initially identified as high-risk. Surveillance is being sustained at international points of entry in collaboration with Port Health Services.

Ahead of the December festive season, Idris urged residents and visitors not to assume every fever is malaria, to seek medical attention promptly, and to disclose travel history and possible exposure to health workers. International travellers arriving in Nigeria should complete the Nigeria Health Declaration Form before arrival, he said, and organisers of religious gatherings, rallies, concerts, festivals and sporting events were asked to provide sanitation, safe drinking water and medical assistance, and to report suspected illnesses promptly.

The completed monitoring follows the earlier stage of the same response, when dozens of contacts of the imported case were first identified and placed under surveillance. Read the earlier report on Nigeria's Ebola contacts