Ebola: We Have No Evidence That It Has Gone Into the Communities – Pate Assures Nigerians

According to a video posted on YouTube by Channels TV on Thursday, October 22, 2026, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, has provided updates on Nigeria’s response to an imported Ebola case, reporting improvements in the patient’s laboratory results and outlining measures to prevent further transmission.

Pate made the disclosure during a media briefing in Abuja, where he addressed contact tracing, surveillance, public gatherings and the Federal Government’s efforts to contain the infection.

The minister said health authorities began tracing people who might have been exposed to the patient immediately after the case was confirmed. The contacts identified included people at a hospital, a private clinic and individuals who had domestic contact with the patient.

Explaining the tracing process and the assessment of those potentially exposed, Pate said: “Immediately upon confirmation, we initiated contact tracing. She was asytomatic when she arrived in Nigeria. She developed symptoms few days after arrival which we had shared before. We’ve traced the contacts, identified the contacts in the hospital, the domestic contacts and the private clinic that she had attended. All those contacts have been categorized in risk levels, high risk and low risk.”

Pate said the government had also adopted a coordinated response involving relevant ministries and agencies, including the Ministry of Aviation, to strengthen the national response.

Describing the inter-agency collaboration, he said: “At the federal government level, there’s a whole of government approach through the task force. Aviation Ministry has been very much with us. uh other relevant government entities are also very much engaged uh so that we bring the heft of the federal government under the leadership of the chief of staff to the president that will continue.”

The minister also expressed confidence in Nigeria’s ability to identify the infection promptly and said authorities intended to investigate the virus further through genomic sequencing.

“We’ve assured Nigerians that the public health capacity is there. We’re able to diagnose this from when the public health authorities were informed within 24 hours and we notified who we are now going forward to see how we can sequence the genomics of the virus to understand more about it.”

On whether public gatherings should be cancelled or restricted, Pate said the available evidence did not indicate community transmission. He urged Nigerians to remain vigilant while authorities continued monitoring the identified contacts.

“Because it is contained so far the imported case. We have no evidence that it has gone into the communities. So our focus is on the contact tracing and ensuring that we know exactly where those contacts are and it doesn’t go into the communities. And at this moment there is no evidence to indicate that.

“But basic public health prevention should increasingly be put in place, including here in key areas of our government. And in fact, we’ve directed that those be put in place so that even if there are no sanitizers, wash your hands frequently. Avoid unnecessary contact with somebody else’s body fluids.”

The government has urged Nigerians to follow verified public health information and observe preventive measures as surveillance and containment activities continue.

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