By Muhammad Amaan
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has inaugurated a national Ebola preparedness webinar series, adopting a proactive communication strategy to engage the public before any confirmed Ebola case emerges in Nigeria.
The initiative is aimed at strengthening public awareness, building trust, promoting vigilance, and ensuring that accurate information reaches communities early enough to counter rumours, misinformation, and fear associated with disease outbreaks.
Director-General of NCDC, Dr Jide Idris, said this on Thursday during a webinar on “Nigeria Ebola Risk Communication, Community Engagement and Infodemic Management Preparedness (RCCE+IM),” emphasising the need to build trust and vigilance nationwide.
Dr Idris said the initiative sought to ensure accurate information reached communities before rumours and misinformation spread, noting that although Nigeria had no confirmed Ebola cases linked to the current outbreak, authorities remained vigilant.
“As of June 6, the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda stood at 533 confirmed cases and 84 deaths.
“The virus has crossed into Uganda, and experience from Ebola, COVID-19, Mpox, cholera, and Lassa fever shows that diseases do not respect borders,” he said.
He urged stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health, National Orientation Agency (NOA), state governments, health workers, media organisations, civil society groups, faith-based organisations and community mobilisers, to align messages and maintain public trust.
According to him, consistency in communication remains critical to effective preparedness, while the webinar provides a national and regional platform for coordination, information sharing and capacity building among stakeholders.
“Over the coming weeks, discussions will focus on community engagement, social listening, infodemic management, media engagement, inclusive communication, and state-level preparedness.
“The aim is to strengthen Nigeria’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to any potential Ebola event,” he said.
Dr Idris emphasised that preparedness must begin before disease detection, noting that while surveillance systems, laboratories, treatment centres and emergency operations centres were important, public trust and community participation remained equally essential.
He identified misinformation, fear, stigma and false cures as major threats capable of undermining outbreak response efforts as rapidly as the virus itself, underscoring the importance of effective public communication.
“To address this, Nigeria is prioritising risk communication, community engagement, and infodemic management.
“Communities will be listened to, concerns addressed quickly, and evidence-based guidance provided to help families protect themselves.
“The public is advised to rely only on official sources such as NCDC and the Ministry of Health,” he said, while also highlighting the importance of regional collaboration in strengthening public health security.
“Public health threats do not stop at national borders, so Nigeria is working closely with ECOWAS member states and development partners.
“Aligning messages across countries is key to protecting health security in West Africa,” he said.
The NCDC boss described preparedness as a shared responsibility, saying every stakeholder had a role to play in keeping the country vigilant, informed, coordinated and ready without creating unnecessary fear.
“The best time to strengthen preparedness is before an outbreak occurs, and the best way to protect communities is through trust, partnership, and timely action,” he said.
