Nigeria needs 42 days of monitoring to be declared Ebola-free – WHO

The World Health Organisation has said Nigeria must complete a 42-day monitoring period before it can be declared free of Ebola following the confirmation of a case in the country.

The Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said all 53 identified contacts of the Ebola patient must be monitored for 21 days, followed by another 21-day period, in line with established protocols.

Recall that in a post on X on Monday, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, said Nigeria had no active Ebola cases following the medical evacuation of the infected patient and her husband to Switzerland.

Janabi said the patient was clinically stable after receiving treatment from Nigerian medical personnel, while Switzerland would take responsibility for her continued management and the monitoring of her husband, who was identified as contact number 53.

“The Nigerian medical team successfully managed her through the acute phase of the illness and stabilised her condition,” he said.

He added, “With the evacuation of the patient and her husband, Nigeria currently has no Ebola cases.”

Janabi, however, stressed that Nigeria would continue to monitor the 52 contacts remaining in the country, while Swiss authorities would oversee the patient’s husband

Meanwhile, speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, Ihekweazu said the monitoring process was necessary before Nigeria could be declared Ebola-free.

He said, “What it means still is that we have about 53 people, contacts, individuals with whom that individual had contact over the days that she was ill. And now we have to continue to follow each of them for 21 days and then require another 21 days, coming up to 42, in order to declare Nigeria Ebola-free.

“These are the standard protocols as defined by the World Health Organisation, where I work, and which we use in every country around the world that has a similar incident.”

Ihekweazu clarified that the medical evacuation of the Ebola patient to her country of origin was not due to a lack of capacity to manage the disease in Nigeria.

He said, “On Tuesday we saw the medical evacuation of the patient from Nigeria to the country from which the patient came. This wasn’t a response to any deficit in the management capacities in Nigeria.

“This was at the request of the country of origin of the case. She was medically evacuated yesterday, as we all saw.”

The WHO official explained that every confirmed Ebola case required a coordinated response because the disease belongs to a group of infections known as viral haemorrhagic fevers.

He said, “For certain diseases, a group of diseases we call the viral haemorrhagic fevers, of which Ebola is one of them, we consider every single case an equivalent of an outbreak and requiring a coordinated response.

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“So, in this case, that’s exactly why we raised the alarm, supported the government to do what it needed to do to respond.”

He commended Nigeria’s response to the case, citing the speed of laboratory confirmation and sequencing, as well as the management of the patient.

He said, “On the response in the country, you know, I think we’ve advised the country to have appropriate response measures to this, and they have carried this out more or less to the letter. We’ve had excellent case management in Nigeria.

“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.”

Addressing concerns about political rallies and other public gatherings, Ihekweazu said the WHO had not recommended further restrictions, adding that its advice was based on technical assessments.

He said, “We haven’t advised any restrictions on further gatherings. Our advice is never political.

“It’s always technical. And we will continue to support the government in this response.”

He added that the priority was to monitor every identified contact daily, detect any further transmission early and respond promptly.

“The key thing now is for every single contact that the patient had to be followed up every single day, that is happening, and to ensure that there’s no further transmission, if there is transmission, to detect it early and respond appropriately,” he said.

Ihekweazu urged Nigerians to trust the government and relevant health agencies, stressing the need to keep the response focused on public health.

He said, “So for now, I think the key thing is to keep this as a technical response, trust the government, trust these agencies. They are being supported by the World Health Organization in all ramifications of the response.

“And I’m confident that we can support the government to get this under control and not politicise this event at all.”