The Ebola outbreak response has renewed calls for urgent investment in intensive care units (ICUs) across Nigeria, with the Intensive and Critical Care Society of Nigeria warning that poorly equipped hospitals could undermine efforts to save patients with severe complications.
The society said isolation facilities alone would not be sufficient to manage serious Ebola cases, which can lead to respiratory failure, septic shock, kidney injury, blood-clotting disorders and multiple organ failure.
In a statement signed by its President, Prof. Otokwala Job Gogo, and Secretary, Dr. Paul Ufoegbunam, the society urged the Federal Government to upgrade intensive care facilities in public tertiary hospitals and provide the equipment and personnel required to manage critically ill patients.
It identified shortages of functional ventilators, multiparameter monitors, infusion pumps, dialysis machines and essential critical care medicines as major gaps in many public hospitals. It also cited inadequate numbers of trained critical care professionals.
“Without functional ICUs, we risk losing patients not directly to the virus itself, but to treatable organ failure,” the society said.
It called on the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to establish dedicated funding for critical care infrastructure, equipment, consumables and maintenance, alongside improved recruitment, retention and training of intensive care physicians, nurses and biomedical engineers.
The society also proposed a National Critical Care Support Network to enable the rapid deployment of medical expertise and equipment during disease outbreaks and other emergencies.
It said stronger intensive care capacity would not only improve the management of severe Ebola cases but also help hospitals treat patients suffering from sepsis, trauma, stroke, obstetric emergencies and complications following surgery.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has continued contact tracing and monitoring as part of efforts to prevent further transmission of the disease.
NCDC Director-General Idris said 53 primary contacts had been identified for follow-up and would be monitored for 21 days from their last possible exposure, in line with established Ebola response protocols.
The contacts include healthcare workers, domestic staff, the patient’s spouse and other individuals who may have been exposed during medical care or related interactions. Idris stressed that being identified as a contact did not mean that a person had contracted the virus.
He disclosed that repeated tests on samples from the index patient had returned positive results, while samples collected from the patient’s husband tested negative.
According to him, contact tracing remains ongoing, and the number of people under observation may change as investigations identify and verify additional contacts.
Idris said some contacts had been accommodated at a designated facility, with the government providing feeding and accommodation while financial support was being reviewed to ease the burden of complying with monitoring requirements.
He added that the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital had been designated as the isolation and treatment centre for the response, with preparations strengthened to accommodate patients requiring specialised care.
The Intensive and Critical Care Society commended the Federal Government, NCDC and frontline health workers for their response efforts but warned that Nigeria must address longstanding weaknesses in critical care infrastructure to improve its readiness for future health emergencies.
The society expressed willingness to provide technical guidance on ICU standards, equipment specifications and professional training, stressing that investment in critical care would strengthen the country’s broader health security.
