The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has placed Lagos, the federal capital territory and several other states on high Ebola alert following the spread of the deadly Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus disease across parts of East and Central Africa.
In a national public health advisory issued to commissioners for health, the agency warned that Nigeria faced a “high risk” of importing the virus because of increasing regional transmission, international travel, porous borders and population movement.
The advisory, dated 27 May 2026, comes amid growing international concern over the Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, a rare strain for which there is currently no approved vaccine or targeted treatment.
States classified by the NCDC as high-risk include Lagos, the FCT, Rivers, Kano, Enugu, Borno, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Taraba and Adamawa because of their international airports, seaports, border routes and high levels of human traffic.
“The immediate objective of our national preparedness and readiness efforts is to ensure that every state and the FCT can reasonably detect, contain, and respond swiftly to any suspected case while protecting health workers and sustaining essential health services,” the agency said.
Although Nigeria has not recorded any confirmed Ebola case, the NCDC said a dynamic risk assessment carried out after the outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern showed that the danger of importation remained significant.
According to the agency, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have so far recorded 1,077 suspected cases and 247 deaths, representing a fatality rate of 24.6%.
The outbreak has also triggered international alarm, with suspected cases reportedly identified in India, while Canada announced temporary restrictions on travel applications involving residents of Uganda, the DRC and South Sudan.
Uganda has also reportedly introduced border closure measures in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus.
The NCDC warned that the Bundibugyo strain differs from the more common Zaire Ebola strain, which existing vaccines and antibody therapies primarily target.
“The current Bundibugyo virus outbreak has no licensed vaccines or approved targeted therapeutics,” the advisory stated.
Health officials also cautioned that early Ebola symptoms could resemble malaria, Lassa fever or other common tropical illnesses, complicating early detection efforts.
“Health workers must not wait for bleeding before suspecting Ebola in any patient with compatible symptoms and relevant travel or exposure history,” the agency said.
As part of emergency preparedness measures, the NCDC said its National Emergency Operations Centre had already been activated in alert mode to coordinate nationwide response efforts.
State governments were instructed to activate Ebola preparedness structures immediately, identify isolation centres, strengthen surveillance at points of entry, equip frontline health workers with personal protective equipment and begin public sensitisation campaigns to counter panic and misinformation.
The Lagos state government, however, sought to reassure residents that there were no confirmed or suspected Ebola cases in the state.
The commissioner for health, Prof Akin Abayomi, said Lagos was closely monitoring developments surrounding outbreaks in Uganda and the DRC because of its status as one of Nigeria’s main international entry points.
He said the state’s biosecurity architecture remained fully activated and prepared to respond rapidly to any biological threat.
“The Lagos Biosecurity Bio-shield was built to protect and remains ready to respond to biological shocks. Preparedness for us is not a temporary reaction; it is a permanent culture embedded within our health system,” Abayomi said.
According to the commissioner, Lagos strengthened its outbreak response framework after both the 2014 Ebola crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, and has continued to maintain surveillance systems against diseases including cholera, diphtheria and Lassa fever.
Nigeria’s renewed Ebola alert has revived memories of the country’s successful containment of the virus during the 2014 outbreak, when an infected Liberian-American traveller, Patrick Sawyer, arrived in Lagos and exposed dozens of people before authorities intervened.
At the time, public health experts feared a catastrophic outbreak because of Lagos’s dense population and status as one of Africa’s busiest commercial centres.
However, aggressive contact tracing, rapid isolation measures and coordinated public awareness campaigns enabled Nigeria to contain the outbreak within months, earning praise from the World Health Organization.
Health authorities now warn that the latest outbreak poses a distinct challenge because the Bundibugyo strain remains less understood and lacks the countermeasures available for the Zaire variant.
Officials have urged Nigerians to remain calm, avoid misinformation and fake cures, maintain proper hygiene and report suspected symptoms early as surveillance and preparedness measures intensify nationwide.
