By Modupe Gbadeyanka

About $50 million has been promised by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, through its First Response Fund (FRF), to support the response to the ongoing Bundibugyo ebolavirus outbreak.

A statement from the organisation made available to Business Post on Monday said up to $40 million would be available to enable accelerated access to investigational doses and, eventually, approved vaccines, while a further $10 million would support outbreak response and protection of routine immunisation services in impacted countries.

“We need to act now to ensure that, once one or more vaccine candidates are ready, manufacturers are in a position to start producing doses at scale,” the chief executive of Gavi, Dr Sania Nishtar, was quoted as saying.

“Leveraging this allocation, Gavi will work closely with CEPI and partners to design the right incentives to achieve this goal, exploring all options, including potential Advance Purchase Commitments.

“This effort, alongside ensuring emergency funds are on hand to support outbreak response and protect routine immunisation services in the communities impacted, is exactly what our First Response Fund was designed for,” Dr Nishtar added.

The First Response Fund is the only globally approved mechanism that allows “at-risk” financing for scaled-up production of vaccines under development. This means Gavi is able to make vital early investments even when development outcomes are uncertain.

The $40 million in immediate surge financing that has been approved today will enable manufacturers of the leading candidates of a vaccine against the Bundibugyo virus to directly commit to high-capacity manufacturing.

This, in turn, will ensure that, as soon as clinical trials demonstrate positive outcomes, investigational vaccine doses could be deployed rapidly to support outbreak response.

Looking to the longer-term, Gavi will also provide incentives for manufacturers to adopt the fastest pathways towards WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) and/or WHO Prequalification (PQ), which are critical global approvals that will enable the rapid use of these vaccines in future emergencies.

In the coming weeks, Gavi will finalise the design of a financial mechanism that leverages the $40 million FRF allocation to achieve these vaccine access goals, in close partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) as well as WHO, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and UNICEF.

The final design will take into account the characteristics of individual vaccine candidates and the needs of their manufacturers and may include mechanisms such as Advance Purchase Commitments. Work will also be undertaken to ensure successful candidates from African-based vaccine manufacturers can benefit from accelerated support through Gavi’s African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA) initiative.

In addition to these investments, Gavi will also immediately release US$ 10 million to support countries and partners with outbreak response.

This funding will support implementation of national outbreak response plans, including targeted investments to protect routine immunisation, protect health care workers and ensure readiness for future vaccines. Gavi will work closely with countries, partners including Africa CDC, WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, and donors to ensure these investments complement other efforts.

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria is considering flight restrictions and tighter border surveillance to prevent Ebola outbreaks from spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, and South Sudan into the country.

The move was discussed during a high-level strategic meeting held in Lagos on Thursday, where top government officials reviewed Nigeria’s Ebola preparedness and response framework amid growing concerns over outbreaks in parts of Africa.

Among those present at the meeting were Mr Jide Idris, Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC); Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior; Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu; and Mr Akin Abayomi, Lagos State Commissioner for Health.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Gbajabiamila said President Tinubu had been fully briefed on the situation in the affected countries and assured Nigerians that the federal government would take all necessary steps to prevent any outbreak in Nigeria.

“We have a health scare, which is Ebola, and we all know what happened the last time. The cases are getting worse, internationally and worldwide, and we don’t want to leave anything to chance,” Mr Gbajabiamila said.

He explained that several preventive measures were being considered by the government, including restricting flights from countries affected by the outbreak.

“There were three or four areas we looked at. We looked at the issue of the possibility, as of now, of restricting flights from countries of interest. We looked at the possibilities of isolating passengers who may exhibit symptoms of Ebola,” he said.

“We looked at the possibility of isolating or using the cargo terminal to deal with passengers that are coming in from those areas, and of course, putting certain things in place, protocols in place; we believe that prevention is better than cure, and where some passengers slip through the cracks, then we must have ways of dealing with situations such as that.”

On his part, Mr Tunji-Ojo said the government had already directed that all entry points into Nigeria be placed under strict surveillance.

According to him, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) would collaborate closely with the NCDC to strengthen early detection and rapid response mechanisms.

The NCDC Director-General also disclosed that preparedness plans had been activated across the 36 states of the federation, while public awareness campaigns would be intensified to educate citizens on preventive measures and response protocols.

The renewed alert comes years after the devastating 2013–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, regarded as the deadliest in history, which claimed more than 4,500 lives across the region.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has directed airlines, airport operators and other aviation stakeholders to intensify public health surveillance measures following the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda.

In a circular dated May 18, 2026, the NCAA said the directive became necessary due to growing concerns over the spread of the disease and the critical role of the aviation sector in preventing cross-border transmission.

The authority noted that although no confirmed case linked to the outbreak has been recorded in Nigeria, it is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Health, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Port Health Services and international health organisations to closely monitor the situation.

According to the NCAA, health authorities in the DRC recently identified a cluster of severe illnesses among healthcare workers in the Bunia Health Zone in the northeastern part of the country.

Recall that Nigeria also said it would tighten surveillance after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a public health emergency after Ebola killed over 80 people in Congo and Uganda.

Laboratory investigations later confirmed the presence of the Bundibugyo virus, a strain of the Ebola virus family known to cause severe viral haemorrhagic disease in humans.

The authority stated that there is currently no licensed vaccine specifically approved for the Bundibugyo strain, while treatment remains largely supportive and symptom-based.

The NCAA listed symptoms associated with Ebola Virus Disease to include sudden fever, severe fatigue, persistent headache, vomiting, abdominal pain and bleeding manifestations such as nosebleeds or vomiting blood.

It stressed that early detection and immediate reporting remain critical to preventing the international spread of the disease.

As part of preventive measures, the authority said disease surveillance systems at airports have been strengthened, while contact tracing, case reporting mechanisms and border health screening procedures are also being reinforced.

The NCAA further directed pilots to notify Air Traffic Control of any suspected communicable disease cases onboard aircraft, in line with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations.

It also instructed flight crew members to complete and submit Aircraft General Declaration forms for all suspected cases and mandated airlines to ensure passenger locator forms are completed and handed over to Port Health Services upon arrival.

The authority added that airlines must ensure aircraft are properly equipped with first aid kits, universal precaution kits and emergency medical kits.

It also urged operators to reinforce crew training on the identification and management of communicable diseases and ensure strict adherence to infection prevention and control guidelines.

The NCAA called on all aviation stakeholders to remain vigilant and comply fully with established public health protocols to safeguard passengers, crew members and the general public from potential health threats.