The current Ebola outbreak across Uganda and the DRC has reached 894 confirmed cases and 204 confirmed deaths, with 74 recoveries reported in the first month since the declaration on May 15, 2026.

Dr Wessam Mankoula, Acting Head of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Division at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said this on Thursday during a webinar on the Ebola update.

Mankoula, is also the Regional Director of the Northern Africa Regional Coordinating Centre (Africa RCC)

This is as the Federal Government yesterday launched an aggressive national preparedness campaign against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), inaugurating a Presidential Task Force to coordinate preventive measures and avert any possible outbreak in the country.

The move comes amid renewed concerns over Ebola outbreaks in parts of Africa, with authorities insisting that Nigeria must not wait for infections to emerge before taking action.

Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, disclosed this on Thursday after inaugurating the Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness at the State House, Abuja.

He said although no Ebola case has been recorded in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu’s administration was adopting a proactive strategy aimed at safeguarding the country against the deadly virus.

According to Gbajabiamila, the government’s priority is prevention, stressing that Nigeria cannot afford to repeat the uncertainty and emergency response that characterised the 2014 Ebola scare.

‘We inaugurated the task force today on Nigeria’s preparedness for the Ebola Virus Disease. We have covered a lot of ground. Right now, there is no reported case, and that is good news. That is why all hands must be on deck to ensure that the measures we are taking are preventive and not curative.

“We do not want to find ourselves in the situation we experienced the last time when a carrier entered the country and everyone was scrambling to respond,” he said.

The Chief of Staff revealed that specialised subcommittees had been established to oversee critical areas, including disease surveillance, border management, immigration control, public health response and inter-agency coordination.

He noted that one of the major lessons from Nigeria’s successful containment of Ebola in 2014 was the importance of strong collaboration among federal, state and local authorities, particularly in states with international points of entry.

Gbajabiamila said governors and representatives of states hosting international airports, including Lagos, Rivers, Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), participated in the meeting to strengthen coordinated action against potential threats.

He also underscored the need to secure Nigeria’s vast land borders, warning that informal cross-border movements could heighten the risk of disease transmission.

“Whenever people discuss preparedness for cross-border diseases, the focus is usually on airports. This time, however, we are paying equal attention to land borders.

“We have significant cross-border migration through land routes. The Border Control Development Agency, the Nigeria Immigration Service and border communities are all part of the preparedness framework,” he said.

Gbajabiamila added that the government was building on the structures and lessons that enabled Nigeria to successfully contain Ebola in 2014, with the ultimate objective of maintaining the country’s current zero-case status.

“What we want is a zero case, as we have now. We want to sustain that zero-case record,” he stated.

Also speaking, Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr Jide Idris, assured Nigerians that no Ebola infection had been recorded anywhere in the country.

He said the agency had already intensified surveillance at airports and other points of entry while strengthening emergency response systems nationwide.

“The focus is preparedness. We do not have any Ebola case in Nigeria at the moment, but we must remain vigilant and ensure the virus does not enter the country.

“However, should any case slip through, we want to be fully prepared to detect, isolate and manage it effectively,” Idris said.

The NCDC chief explained that existing disease surveillance and emergency management structures were being upgraded to address Ebola-specific threats, with multiple government institutions brought into a unified response framework.

According to him, the preparedness strategy involves the ministries of health, interior and education, immigration authorities, border agencies and state governments.

He stressed that effective outbreak prevention depends on clear roles, strong coordination and a functional command-and-control system.

Uganda’s situation remains unchanged with 19 cases, two deaths for a 10.5 per cent case fatality rate, seven recoveries, and 100 per cent contact listing, all confined to one health zone in Kampala.

He said that the DRC was driving the outbreak, with Ituri Province as the epicenter, reporting 91 confirmed cases and accounting for 78 per cent of all deaths recorded in the country.

“North Kivu is the most worrisome area due to insecurity limiting responder access, resulting in a high case fatality rate and the lowest contact tracing coverage among the three affected provinces.

“The outbreak is spreading rapidly, with 32 health zones now affected across the DRC and Uganda, up from three health zones in week 1 to 11 on May 22, 14 in week 3, and 32 by week 4.

“This ranks as the third-largest Ebola outbreak by total cases and deaths so far, behind only West Africa 2014 and the 2018–2019 DRC outbreak, and fourth or fifth in caseload during the first four weeks compared to the top 20 outbreaks historically,” he said.

According to him, cases increased by 38 per cent from last week to this week, yet the geographic spread remains within the same three provinces where the outbreak began.

He said that contact tracing remains critically low. For more than 800 confirmed cases, an estimated 17,000 to 35,000 contacts should be listed and monitored daily, but only more than 6,000 are listed — about 20 per cent of the expected number.