Nigerian health officials say laboratory tests have confirmed the country's first case of the Bundibugyo Ebola strain, the virus behind a major outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the first time it has reached West Africa during the current epidemic.
According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), the patient is a woman who travelled from Uganda to the capital Abuja on 3 October. She was tested for Ebola on 19 October after health officials learned she had recently been in Uganda, one of the countries affected by the current outbreak. The positive result was announced on Tuesday.
"We carried out three levels of testing, all of them molecular. The strain is Bundibugyo," Olajumoke Babatunde, director of NCDC's public health laboratory services, said on Wednesday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also confirmed the strain, for which there is currently neither a vaccine nor a specific treatment.
Condition deteriorates
An official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that the patient is a diplomat and that her condition had progressed to "multi-organ failure."
Dr Ayoade Alakija, a Nigerian physician who co-chairs a G7 panel on global health investment, said 12 days passed between the onset of her illness and her Ebola test, meaning many others may have been exposed.
Nigerian authorities have identified 44 contacts, most of them healthcare workers. They include the patient's husband, a Swiss national who lives with her in Abuja.
Officials are also tracing passengers who flew with her from Uganda to Nigeria, but believe she was not symptomatic during the flight.
Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate told the public broadcaster NTA that the patient is in isolation and receiving treatment.
Previous cases
In 2014, Nigeria's first case, detected in Lagos, raised fears of rapid spread, but the outbreak was brought under control within three months, with 20 infections and eight deaths.
That epidemic killed more than 11,000 people across West Africa between late 2013 and 2016.
The WHO says Nigeria is the fifth country to detect the virus in this outbreak, which has spread across the continent in the past week, with Kenya in the east reporting nine cases since 6 October.
Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote on X on Wednesday that the outbreak "is no longer one country's fight," and said he would convene a meeting of African health ministers next week to strengthen cross-border response and review hospital capacity.
The DRC is the epicentre of the outbreak, which is also the worst in the country's history. Since mid-May, it has recorded more than 9,000 Ebola infections and more than 4,000 deaths.
