The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is the country’s national public health institute established in the year 2011. The agency’s mandate is to enhance Nigeria’s preparedness and response to epidemics through the prevention, detection and control of infectious diseases.
The Headquarters of NCDC is in Abuja, Nigeria. The agency also coordinates functions of its National Reference Laboratory (NRL) in Abuja and a campus, Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL) in Lagos State.
NCDC Administrative Headquarters at Jabi District, Abuja
Vision
A healthier and safer Nigeria through the prevention and control of diseases of public health importance.
Mission
To protect the health of Nigerians through evidence-based prevention, integrated disease surveillance and response activities, using a one health approach, guided by research and led by a skilled workforce.
Functions of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
NCDC National Reference Laboratory Gaduwa, Abuja
Some Key Achievements
In 2019, Nigeria completed the largest ever population-based HIV /AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) recorded globally. According to the NAIIS result, HIV prevalence in Nigeria is 1.5%.
The NCDC NRL served as the central laboratory for the survey. This led this to the establishment of a large biorepository that houses the survey samples for the Government of Nigeria.
Nigeria became the first country to carry out a mid-term Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of International Health Regulations (IHR) core capacities in 2019. The results showed that Nigeria achieved an overall score of 46%, an improvement from the baseline score of 39% recorded in 2017. The review was conducted based on standard international criteria as contained in the World Health Organization (WHO) JEE 2.0 tool for self-assessment and grading.
Since 2017, NCDC has adopted SORMAS as the tool for case-based digital surveillance. SORMAS integrates all the necessary functionalities in surveillance and outbreak response such as case investigation, contact tracing, rumour management and laboratory management of samples. This has been particularly instrumental in the public health response to diseases in Nigeria including the COVID-19 outbreak, allowing for real-time surveillance.
Within three years, NCDC has ensured the full deployment and adoption of SORMAS for digital surveillance in priority health facilities, 774 LGAs and all 36+1 states in Nigeria.
In April 2018, NCDC established the first State Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) in Nigeria. These PHEOCs serve as coordination hubs for disease outbreak management and has helped to improve disease detection as well as coordination of information, resources and response to public health events. These PHEOCs also provide for collaboration with partners, relevant stakeholders and other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
As at September 2020, in addition to the 7 polio EOCs in the country, 27 PHEOCs have been established and 837 multi-sectoral staff strength (surge and core) trained and mentored across all 27 states with PHEOCs.
Work with PANDORA
PANDORA: Epidemiological Study of Monkeypox Contacts in Nigeria
Since 2017, Nigeria has continued to record cases of monkeypox disease in several states. This recent resurgence of monkeypox in Nigeria and some African countries and the continued exportation of the disease to non-African countries, has placed monkeypox on the global public health agenda.
Pan-African Network for Rapid Research, Response, Relief and Preparedness for
Infectious Diseases Epidemics (PANDORA-ID-NET) is funding a collaborative study
between the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and University College
London (UCL) to improve monkeypox surveillance in Nigeria and determine the
burden, source(s), geographical distribution and the transmission of monkeypox
in Nigeria.