Members of the House, at the plenary on Thursday, unanimously adopted a motion moved by one of them, Dachung Bagos, who warned that the virus might spread to Nigeria as other African countries had been recording ebola cases.

It was titled ‘Motion of Urgent Public Importance on the Need for Federal Government to Activate Response against the Possible Detection of Ebola in Nigeria.’

Bagos noted that the Ugandan health authorities, on September 20, 2022, declared an outbreak of Ebola disease, caused by the Sudan virus, following laboratory confirmation of a patient from a village in Madudu sub-county, Mubende District, Central Uganda.

The lawmaker also noted that the World Health Organisation expressed concerns that in the absence of licensed vaccines and therapeutics for prevention and treatment of Sudan virus disease, the risk of potential serious public health impact is high.

According to him, investigations are ongoing to determine the scope of the outbreak and the possibility of spreading. “Importation of cases to neighbouring countries cannot be ruled out at this stage,” he stated.

Bagos further said, “According to the information currently available, the overall risk has been assessed as high at national level considering the confirmed Sudan virus and the lack of an authorised vaccine, the possibility that the event started three weeks before the identification of the index case and several transmission chains have not been tracked.

“The House is worried that the Ebola virus is giving a lot of people concern around the world, as it was the variant that gave a lot of infections and fatalities in some countries.

“The House is concerned that Nigeria has reason to be warier at the moment as the deadly Ebola virus can get into Nigeria through our borders or travellers coming into Nigeria for business or any reason and could become dominant if unchecked.”

Adopting the motion, the House mandated the Federal Ministry of Health to “immediately activate strategies to be implemented in monitoring adherence to Ebola guidelines and ensure residents continue to comply with all advisories aimed at curtailing the likely development of the virus in Nigeria.”

The lawmakers also mandated the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control to ensure intensive observation and check on travel protocols for inbound passengers from red flag countries.

They further mandated the NCDC to set up a national response to control the likely emergence and spread of the Ebola virus in order to spare Nigerians the brunt of the pandemic.

“The confirmed case is a 24-year-old male… (who) presented with EVD symptoms and later succumbed,” the ministry said on Twitter, using an abbreviation for Ebola virus disease.

In a statement released earlier on Tuesday, the World Health Organization said a 24-year-old man in Mubende had tested positive for “the relatively rare Sudan strain” of the virus.

“This follows an investigation by the National Rapid Response team of six suspicious deaths that have occurred in the district this month,” WHO said.

Eight other suspected patients were undergoing treatment, WHO said.

This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda is recording the Ebola Sudan strain,” WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said.

“We are working closely with the national health authorities to investigate the source of this outbreak while supporting the efforts to quickly roll out effective control measures.”

There have been seven previous outbreaks of the Sudan strain, including four times in Uganda and thrice in Sudan, the WHO said.

Uganda — which shares a porous border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — has experienced several Ebola outbreaks in the past, most recently in 2019, when at least five people died.

The DRC last month recorded a new case in its violence-wrecked east, less than six weeks after an epidemic in the country’s northwest was declared over.

The DRC early last month declared its latest Ebola outbreak over, more than two months after the virus re-emerged in the northwestern Equateur province.

Last week, however, the World Health Organization said DR Congo was investigating a suspected case.

The sample from a 46-year-old woman who died on August 15 in Beni city, North Kivu province, “tested positive” for Ebola, DR Congo’s health ministry said in a statement published late Monday.

It added that tests showed the case is linked to a previous strain of the virus from 2018 and was not a new variant.

The ministry sought to reassure the public that officials were “hard at work on the ground” to respond to the situation.

Around 160 people have been identified as contact cases, it added.

Ebola is an often fatal viral haemorrhagic fever. The disease was named after a river in Zaire, as the country was known when it was discovered.

Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.

Over 120 militias roam the DRC’s mineral-rich but volatile east, where attacks on civilians are routine.

The organisation said that the outbreak affected the north-western Équateur province, with the first case recorded there on April 23.

It said that in total, there were four confirmed cases and one suspected case; all patients died of the disease.

In a previous outbreak in the province between June and November 2020, a total of 130 cases were detected and 55 people died.

However, the latest outbreak was the 14th recorded in the country of 90 million since 1976.

Between 2014 and 2016, the largest-ever outbreak of the disease took place in West Africa with more than 11,000 deaths.

Ebola infection often leads to high fever and internal bleeding, and is life-threatening.

The 23-month long battle against the outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo resulted in the death of 2,280 people and also drew on 16,000 front-line workers, technological innovation and a new vaccine.

The regional director of WHO, Dr Matshidiso Moeti said the outbreak is overdue to the collaboration by various arms of government and the community.

Moeti said “This is a sign of hope that with solidarity and science epidemics can be controlled. At times it seemed like a mission impossible. Ending this Ebola outbreak is a sign of hope for the region and the world, that with solidarity and science and courage and commitment, even the most challenging epidemics can be controlled.”

Four Ebola drugs was administered to patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo where there is a major outbreak of the virus, but two showed that 90% of infected people can survive if treated early.

The therapies that have improved survival rates are REGN-EB3, a cocktail of three monoclonal Ebola antibodies made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN), and mAb114, a single monoclonal antibody developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID said “REGN-EB3 and mAb114 are the first drugs that, in a scientifically sound study, have clearly shown a significant diminution in mortality for people with Ebola virus disease. It means that we do have now what looks like treatments for a disease which not too long ago we really had no therapeutic approach at all. We feel that with agents such as these … that we may be able to improve the survival of people with Ebola and … might even make people more enthusiastic about coming for care. Because when you have something to offer an individual, it makes it much more likely that you might get to them early. And the earlier the better, as in any disease”.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Abdullaziz Abdullahi, while briefing the press in Abuja on Wednesday, added that no one has tested positive in the country since its disappearance in 2012.

The press briefing was in response to reports making the rounds about a fresh positive case of EVD in the Country.

Abdullahi said there has been heightened surveillance at the various points of entry into the country by officials of the Ministry to prevent possible importation of Ebola virus into Nigeria since the reports of outbreak of disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

To that effect, he said: “Every sick passenger has been properly screened and I can say categorically that none of the patients screened has tested positive for Ebola or any deadly disease.

“A recent preliminary risk assessment conducted by the Nigeria Ebola Preparedness team, coordinated by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) indicated that the overall risk of importation of EVD to Nigeria from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda is low, but we are not resting on our oars in view of trading activities of Nigerians.”

He gave an assurance that the Nigerian Government remained fully committed, while working closely with the WHO, State Ministries of Health, partners and all other stakeholders, to protect the health of all Nigerians.