Nigeria reports Ebola case linked to traveller from Uganda and Congo trip

Nigeria has confirmed an Ebola infection in Abuja after a woman who arrived from Uganda tested positive, making the country the latest in the region to report a case during an expanding outbreak. The health ministry said authorities had identified 44 people who had contact with the patient and begun tracing them. The woman developed symptoms on 7 October and was admitted to a hospital in the capital four days later, according to The Guardian.

Nigerian authorities have not said when she entered the country or disclosed her nationality. They also have not established where she contracted the virus. Uganda’s health ministry said the patient was a Nigerian woman who had travelled on business to eastern Congo and had only passed through Uganda.

It stressed that transit through Uganda did not show that infection had occurred there, adding that the location of exposure was still under investigation. Uganda also insisted that it currently had no confirmed active Ebola cases. The clarification reflects a significant uncertainty surrounding the Nigerian case: although the patient travelled through Uganda, the available reports do not identify that country as the source of her infection.

Nigeria’s health minister, Muhammad Pate, said officials were working to contain the case by identifying and monitoring people who may have been exposed. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said it had already strengthened surveillance, laboratory diagnosis, isolation and referral procedures after Ebola was detected in Kenya. The country established an Ebola taskforce in June, following the outbreak in Congo in mid-May.

The agency said its preparedness work also included infection prevention, contact tracing, public communication and measures to protect healthcare workers. The Nigerian case follows Kenya’s confirmation of its first infection earlier this month. Kenya has since recorded nine infections, while Uganda had previously reported cases before declaring itself free of the virus, according to The Guardian.

Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control, described the situation as “an extremely serious threat”. He said the Bundibugyo outbreak had become the most geographically extensive in history, affecting countries in three African regions, and put its fatality rate at nearly 50% of cases. The Guardian reported that more than 9,500 people have been infected and more than 4,600 killed in the current outbreak.

The World Health Organization has said the spread is the fastest on record and could surpass the West African outbreak of 2014-16, which killed about 11,000 people. France 24 independently reported Nigeria’s first case but supplied no additional details.