Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has declared that the state’s successful management of the 2014 Ebola outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that public health preparedness must be firmly established well before a crisis strikes.
​Speaking on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, during the Opening Plenary of the Lagos Health Security Summit held at the Continental Hotel, Victoria Island, Prof. Abayomi reflected on the state’s historical public health battles while outlining future strategies for epidemic readiness.
​”When Ebola arrived on our shores in July 2014, and subsequently when COVID-19 hit in early 2020, Lagos was thrust onto the global stage,” Prof. Abayomi stated during his keynote address. “Our ability to contain those outbreaks was not a matter of luck; it was the result of pre-existing infrastructure, rapid contact tracing, and proactive leadership. Public health response cannot be built in the middle of a storm, the foundation must be laid long before the crisis hits.”
​The three-day summit brought together international health experts, policymakers, and state officials to discuss biosecurity infrastructure, disease surveillance, and emergency response funding.
​Adding to the Commissioner’s remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Olusegun Ogboye, underscored the state’s ongoing investments in local response systems.
​”Lagos remains the economic and transit hub of West Africa, making us uniquely vulnerable to infectious disease threats,” Dr. Ogboye said during the afternoon panel session. “Following the lessons of 2014 and 2020, we have decentralized our epidemiological intelligence units and expanded our state biobank capacity to ensure real-time threat detection.”
Officials at the summit emphasised on leveraging protocols established during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, originally triggered by the index case on July 20, 2014, to streamline early-warning systems for future pathogens.
Scaling up the Lagos State Biobank and Biosecurity Laboratory infrastructure to enhance genomic sequencing capabilities across West Africa. Continuous training for primary healthcare workers in rapid isolation, contact tracing, and community-level risk communication.
Establishing dedicated emergency funding reserves in collaboration with private sector healthcare providers to prevent financial bottlenecks during outbreaks.
​The summit concluded its opening day with a call to action for surrounding state governments to adopt integrated disease surveillance networks, ensuring regional resilience against emerging public health threats.
