Doctors warn Nigerians in Lagos, Abuja to stop eating bush meat as Ebola kills 80 in DRC

• Nigerian doctors and the NCDC have warned against eating bush meat.

• Health experts say bats and primates linked to bush meat trade are known carriers of the Ebola virus.

• Nigeria has activated surveillance at borders, recalling the deadly 2014 Ebola outbreak in Lagos.

Nigerian doctors are raising the alarm over bush meat consumption as Ebola ravages the Democratic Republic of Congo and spreads into Uganda and health authorities warn Nigeria could be next if Nigerians are not careful.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) confirmed on Wednesday that Nigeria currently has no recorded Ebola case. But the agency's Director-General, Dr. Jide Idris, said Nigerians must not let their guard down.

Physicians said bats and non-human primates, the same animals commonly sold as bush meat in Nigerian markets, are known reservoirs of the Ebola virus. Hunting, handling, or eating improperly cooked bush meat, they warned, remains one of the clearest pathways for the disease to jump from animals to humans.

"Nigerians should stop hunting for bush meat and the consumption of bush meat during the outbreak of Ebola," one consultant public health physician said. "Suspected cases based on symptoms should be reported immediately to health facilities."

The outbreak now gripping Central Africa is the 17th time Ebola has struck the DRC since the virus was first identified in 1976. This time, the culprit is the Bundibugyo strain, a rare and particularly dangerous variant for which no approved vaccine or treatment currently exists.

WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 16 May 2026, after 246 suspected cases and at least 80 deaths were recorded in Ituri Province alone. Two confirmed cases also emerged in Kampala, Uganda, both linked to travel from DRC, a sign the virus is already crossing borders.

Response efforts have been slowed by armed conflict and mass displacement in eastern DRC, giving the virus room to spread further.

Nigeria has painful experience with Ebola. In 2014, a single infected traveller arriving in Lagos triggered an outbreak that took the lives of eight Nigerians before it was contained, a reminder of how quickly the virus can travel.

The NCDC says it has activated surveillance at ports of entry and is coordinating with Port Health Services across the country. Residents are also advised to wash hands regularly, avoid contact with the bodily fluids of sick persons, and report any unusual illness promptly.

Doctors stress the bush meat warning is not a cultural attack, it is a medical one. With no vaccine available for the Bundibugyo strain and cases rising daily in DRC, they say the easiest protection Nigerians have right now is what they choose not to eat.

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