The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has mobilised infection prevention and control (IPC) alumni and media fellows to strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness for Ebola and other public health emergencies.
The mobilisation was discussed at the IPC Alumni Assembly, held virtually on Friday under the theme “One Network, Many Actions”.
The initiative, supported by DRASA Health Trust, the Centre for Infection Control and Patient Safety (CICAPS), and the Media Epidemiology, Infodemiology and Social Behaviour Change/Risk Communication Fellowship (MEDIA-EIS), aims to improve early detection, protect healthcare workers and prevent transmission in health facilities.
The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Jide Idris, called on trained IPC professionals to apply their expertise to early detection, infection prevention and containment. He stressed that facilities must strengthen preparedness before suspected cases arrive.
“We want active containment. We don’t want to be passive at all. We want to go at it with all that we have,” he said.
Idris, represented by Dr Tochi Okwor, the centre’s Head of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, said Nigeria’s population density, urban centres and population mobility could complicate containment if suspected cases were not identified promptly.
He warned that Ebola symptoms could resemble those of malaria and other common infectious diseases, potentially delaying diagnosis and increasing the risk of exposure among healthcare workers and patients.
Idris urged health facilities to strengthen screening and triage, maintain standard precautions, use personal protective equipment (PPE) according to assessed risks, and promptly report suspected cases through established channels.
“Hand hygiene and risk-based PPE are non-negotiable,” he said.
He also urged IPC professionals to assess gaps in protective equipment, isolation arrangements, environmental cleaning and referral pathways, and work with facility management to address any weaknesses.
Idris said the NCDC planned to engage state commissioners for health and state IPC focal persons to encourage greater use of trained professionals during and beyond the outbreak.
He said graduates of the Diploma in Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC) were included in the NCDC health workforce database, which could help identify personnel for future engagements and capacity-building activities.
Idris encouraged IPC professionals to inform state authorities about their skills and activities to demonstrate their contributions to health security.
On the Orange Network, which brings together health facilities working towards IPC excellence, he explained that applications must be initiated by facility leadership.
He advised medical directors and chief medical directors of interested facilities to write to the NCDC Director-General to express their interest and obtain guidance on the application process.
Ms Niniola Williams, Managing Director of DRASA Health Trust and moderator of the assembly, outlined three priority activities for participating facilities.
Williams said the first was refresher training on Ebola and IPC, focusing on early recognition, standard precautions, prevention of occupational exposure and immediate reporting procedures.
“The second was to establish or strengthen screening and triage arrangements and practise their implementation for five consecutive days,” she said.
Williams said the exercise would allow facilities to test procedures, document lessons, identify operational challenges and make necessary improvements.
“The third activity was to assess facility readiness using an approved checklist based on the national IPC scorecard,” she said.
She said the assessment would help IPC focal persons identify gaps in infection prevention, referral procedures, exposure reporting and other areas of Ebola preparedness.
Williams urged participants to begin with measures they could implement using available resources while seeking management support for additional supplies and funding.
She said facility-level activities were scheduled to begin on Oct. 26, with a review meeting planned for the last week of November to assess progress, challenges and achievements.
She also discussed sharing presentation slides and information, education and communication materials through a shared Google Drive, along with refresher webinars and instructional videos on screening, triage and IPC procedures.
Prof. Sade Ogunsola, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos and a key figure in developing Nigeria’s IPC diploma programme, said the 2014 Ebola outbreak exposed critical gaps in infection prevention, including inadequate facility-level leadership, a shortage of trained professionals and weak systems for protecting healthcare workers.
Ogunsola, who said she had worked in IPC since the 1990s, explained that the outbreak provided an opportunity to establish a structured, competency-based training programme to strengthen infection prevention beyond emergencies.
She recalled that, following the outbreak, the team secured support from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop the DIPC curriculum within 18 months.
She said the programme was designed to equip healthcare professionals with the skills to assess risks, establish and lead IPC programmes, influence clinical practices and prepare facilities for future outbreaks.
According to Ogunsola, infection prevention must be sustained as a routine responsibility rather than activated only during an outbreak.
“IPC is really about the routine, I would say the boring work we do in healthcare facilities every day, where, like soldiers, you prepare for war in peacetime,” she said.
She urged alumni to update their knowledge, mentor colleagues and strengthen infection prevention across primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities.
She said the programme’s success should ultimately be measured by its impact on patient safety, healthcare worker protection and facilities’ ability to prevent the transmission of infections.
