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Anthony Ufoh
The new wave of the dreaded Ebola virus has led the Federal Government to tighten government of people across Nigerian borders following the escalating rise of the disease.
Dr Akpan Nse, Director of Port Health Services, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, stated this on Friday, September 5, 2025.
Nse also noted that additional staff had been employed to strengthen border surveillance in the country.
Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Kasai Province, where 28 suspected cases and 16 deaths, including four health workers, had been reported as of September.
The outbreak comes at a time when much of Central and West Africa is grappling with overlapping health and humanitarian crises, including cholera, malnutrition, and population displacement.
The DRC’s last outbreak of Ebola virus disease occurred in the north-western Equateur Province in April 2022. It was brought under control within three months.
In Kasai Province, previous Ebola outbreaks were reported in 2007 and 2008. Overall, the country has experienced 15 outbreaks since the disease was first identified in 1976.
Ebola virus disease is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans.
It is transmitted to people through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as fruit bats (believed to be the natural hosts). Human-to-human transmission occurs through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person, contaminated objects, or the body of someone who died from the disease.
In the ongoing outbreak, samples tested on September 3 at the National Institute of Biomedical Research in the capital, Kinshasa, confirmed that the cause was Ebola Zaire, a strain of the Ebola virus.
Dr Nse noted that although Nigeria was at risk of importing the virus due to high levels of international travel with the DRC, Port Health Services was on alert and had strengthened surveillance to prevent this.
He said, “We have intensified surveillance at all points of entry across the country—airports, land borders, and seaports. Every inbound traveller coming from Congo to Nigeria is thoroughly screened, and we collect their medical history through mandatory forms.
“We have also reactivated our portals. Every passenger on every flight coming to Nigeria from Congo is screened upon arrival. This applies to airports, seaports, and land borders. Even if passengers transit through Congo on their way to Nigeria, they must undergo screening.
An Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Genomics in the Department of Microbiology at the Adeleke University, Osun State, Oladipo Kolawole, warned that Nigeria should not let down its guard to prevent the importation of the virus.
While he expressed confidence in Nigeria’s expertise in handling the situation, he also called for coordination among various ministries, departments, and agencies to ensure an effective response to the outbreak.
“Everybody coming into the country, especially from DR Congo, must declare where they are coming from at the point of entry, and we must keep our surveillance system well-tightened.
“I think there is a bit of awareness about the virus in the country, and I’m very sure that all the institutions are on ground to handle things based on the experience we had previously on Ebola. I believe the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has a structured system in place that can handle that, and now they have expanded their lab to Lagos. The Nigerian Institute for Medical Research is also available in that regard, and they have a good structure to handle it.”
A virologist at the Department of Virology, College of Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Dr Moses Adewumi, emphasised the urgent need to activate surveillance systems to protect individuals and ensure that preventive measures were fully enforced to stop the virus from entering the country.
He stressed the importance of putting in place all necessary procedures to strengthen the country’s preparedness.
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