Ebola: NCDC defends patient’s evacuation, rejects claims of no confidence

Volunteers of the Democratic Republic of Congo Red Cross wearing personal protective equipment carry the casket containing the body of an Ebola virus disease victim at the morgue of the Rwampara health centre, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 8, 2026 before loading it into a vehicle for transfer to a cemetery as part of safe and dignified burial operations aimed at preventing the spread of the virus. The head of the World Health Organization visited Uganda on Monday and praised its efforts to limit the spread of an Ebola outbreak from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. The WHO has declared an international health emergency over the outbreak which has caused 515 confirmed infections in the DRC, including 91 deaths, since it was announced on May 15 in northeastern DRC. Uganda has recorded 19 cases and two deaths. All but five have been Congolese nationals who crossed the border. (Photo by Jospin Mwisha / AFP)

• Warns against politicising evacuation, false Ebola-free reports

By Sola Ogundipe

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 transfer amounted to a vote of no confidence in the country’s medical system.

The Director-General of the agency, Dr Jide Idris, who spoke on Tuesday in Abuja at a capacity-building programme for journalists on effective Ebola reporting, also dismissed concerns that the evacuation was being politicised, including allegations that the Ebola incident could be used to impose a lockdown, restrict movement or interfere with the 2027 general elections.

Idris said the index patient, who returned to Abuja from Uganda, improved clinically while in isolation and left Nigeria in a stable and conscious condition, even as he said the evacuation did not mean Nigeria had been declared Ebola-free, faulting reports that suggested otherwise.

“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, WHO had to call the reports inaccurate and misleading, and a public that believes the danger is over stops washing its hands and stops calling 6232.

“The evacuation of the patient by her own government has been presented as a vote of no confidence in Nigerian medicine, when she was largely managed by Nigerian clinicians, and this case has been dragged into politics: that it is a pretext for a lockdown, for restricting movement, or for interfering with the 2027 elections.

“There are also persistent demands that we name the patient and her contacts. We will not. A contact who is named is a contact who hides, and a contact who hides is how an imported case becomes an outbreak.

Idris warned that premature claims that Nigeria was Ebola-free could weaken public vigilance and discourage people from observing preventive measures or contacting health authorities when symptoms developed.

“The welfare stipend of N100,000 a week that we approved for people in quarantine, so as to relief the burden of other family responsibilities those in quarantine ought to be performing but unable to for now , has been turned into a story about money sharing, as if people are being paid for Ebola.

“The next six weeks will test the country, and how the public comes through them depends as much on what is published by the agency and the media, ” he said.

He explained that although Nigeria had no confirmed Ebola case in the country following the patient’s evacuation, 53 primary contacts remained under daily follow-up, with most in quarantine in Abuja and a few at home. Three contacts who developed symptoms had tested negative for Ebola, he confirmed.

Idris said 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 World Health Organisation (WHO) would validate any such declaration, he added.

Further, he cautioned against demands for the disclosure of patients’ and contacts’ identities, saying exposure could discourage people from cooperating with health authorities and 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.

Idris, however, stressed that scrutiny of the country’s Ebola response remained legitimate, including questions about preparedness, funding and the speed of contact tracing.

“Accountability is not misinformation. The difference is that a question seeks an answer, and a rumour supplies one,” he said, pledging that the agency would provide timely, on-the-record responses to journalists’ inquiries.

He urged journalists to verify information before publication, use designated NCDC communication channels and correct false reports on the same platforms with comparable prominence.

He also called for responsible reporting that protects patients and contacts from exposure, warning against publishing their names, photographs or addresses or using language that could stigmatise quarantined families.

Reiterating key public health messages, Idris said Ebola spreads through contact with the body fluids of a sick infected person, not through the air. He added that people without symptoms were not infectious and that healthy travellers should not automatically be treated as threats.

He advised anyone who develops a fever and has 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,” he said.