How to Avert an Ebola Nightmare: Lessons From Nigeria's Victory

A feverish patient suspected to have Ebola left a hospital in Liberia on July 17, disregarding the advice of doctors there. Three days later, he took a commercial flight to Lagos, Nigeria, the most populous city in Africa, where he was hospitalized with fever, diarrhea, and vomiting. He told doctors in Lagos he had no exposure to Ebola.

It was a nightmare in the making. The exposure risked spreading an uncontrolled epidemic to an urban hub of trade and travel that’s home to 21 million people—about as many as Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia combined. “The dense population and overburdened infrastructure create an environment where diseases can be easily transmitted and transmission sustained,” researchers wrote of Lagos in an Oct. 3 report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.