The outbreak of the widespread Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Nigeria was so unexpected that it was referred to as “black swan” months after the first confirmed case. Although, the emergence of the Ebola virus disease was first recorded in 1976 between 1979 and 1994 there were no cases indicated and no outbreaks recorded until 2013 in some east and Central African countries. The spread of Ebola in Nigeria is one her history would never forget.

July 20, 2014 the first case of Ebola virus disease was confirmed, the most significant thing about the first case was it had highlighted the indication of weak health systems characterised by inadequate precautions and low knowledge of containment. The EVD was imported into Nigeria by a Liberian on the 20th of July, 2014 where he had arrived Murtala Mohammed Airport, undetected at the airport he had only been identified as sick and taken to a private hospital in Lagos where laboratory tests had confirmed the diagnosis of EVD on the 23rd of July, 2014.

It was after the confirmation of the first nineteen cases which saw the spread to Rivers state, a state about 373.941 miles south of Lagos state. In rivers state, it’s first two cases and one death had already been recorded before the government & the Nigerian center for disease control declared an Ebola emergency.          Subsequently, 28,714 cases were recorded in a space of two months with a 39.6% death rate leaving about 17,342 recorded recoveries across the country.

  In October 20, 2014 when Nigeria had been cleared Ebola free by the world health organization, an interview had been reported with fifteen individuals who played major roles in the Nigeria EVD control efforts of 2014 identified from analysis of existing reports on the EVD outbreak. Key informants reported the lack of preparedness at the airports as a possible reason why the index case of EVD was imported into Nigeria.

“Port health was not properly equipped. We were not fully aware of what to do at the time. Later, better knowledge of the disease brought about increased awareness. It was also as a result of shortage of personnel and diagnostic facilities” [Health Commissioner].

Although, Nigeria had initially come to a critical response to the Ebola outbreak. The government had been able to sensitize the people on the prevention and control of the disease through major broadcast channels like the news and the radio. The isolation and treatment of secondary cases was initially challenging as there were no isolation facilities but this changed with a very fast and commendable creation of isolation centers. Multimodal communication channels including short message service carried Ebola or what was called the red alert. The mainstream media had played a huge role in debunking conspiracies surrounding the Ebola virus outbreak.

At the time the index case was reported, School resumptions were delayed in order to make hand hygiene kits available in preparation for the resumption of schools.

For fear of the contagion as secondary prevention, the first hospital where the first case had been treated was closed down, sanitized and medical personnel tested  to prevent further spread.

The 2014 Ebola outbreak in Nigeria was effectively controlled using the incident management approach with massive support provided by the private sector and international community.

Reference.

Olumade TJ, et al. (July,2017)

Implications and lessons learnt from the Ebola virus outbreak in Nigeria