The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria has placed its members on emergency alert and issued preparedness guidelines requiring pharmacists to immediately strengthen infection prevention measures and surveillance at all pharmacy facilities across the country, as Ebola continued to spread in parts of East and Central Africa.

PSN President Ayuba Ibrahim Tanko said that although Coordinating Minister of Health Professor Muhammad Ali Pate had confirmed there were no current Ebola cases in Nigeria, pharmacists as frontline healthcare professionals and primary points of care had an obligation to maintain absolute vigilance. He said the PSN’s official public health advisory emphasized that early symptoms of Ebola, including sudden high fever, severe fatigue, muscle and joint pains, headaches, and sore throat, could progress to vomiting, diarrhea, skin rashes, impaired kidney and liver function, and bleeding from body openings.

The society ordered pharmacies to re-establish visible hand-washing stations with soap and running water or alcohol-based sanitizers at all entrance points, directed frontline pharmacists and dispensing assistants to wear appropriate medical masks and disposable gloves when interacting with visibly unwell patients, and instructed the disinfection of all high-contact surfaces using bleach solutions or alcohol-based disinfectants.

The advisory told pharmacists to isolate any patient presenting with symptoms consistent with Ebola in a low-traffic area and to immediately contact the NCDC through its toll-free emergency line or the State Ministry of Health Epidemiology desk. It warned against indiscriminate dispensing of antimalarial drugs and antibiotics for unexplained fever cases that failed to respond to standard treatment, and urged pharmacists to counter misinformation about herbal cures and other unverified remedies for Ebola.