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Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola case in the capital, Abuja, after a woman who recently travelled from Uganda tested positive for the deadly virus, prompting health authorities to launch an urgent contact-tracing exercise.
Health Minister, Muhammad Pate, said the patient began showing symptoms on October 7 and was admitted to a hospital in Abuja on October 11, where laboratory tests later confirmed Ebola infection.
Authorities have identified 44 people who came into contact with the patient and are monitoring them closely to prevent further spread, according to the Guardian.
“We are doing everything possible to contain this case by tracing all the contacts the individual may have had,” Pate said.
Uganda’s Ministry of Health said the patient is a Nigerian woman who had been on a business trip to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and had only transited through Uganda.
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It stressed that there are currently no active Ebola cases in Uganda and that investigations are continuing to determine where the infection occurred.
Nigeria becomes the latest African country to report an Ebola case as the current Bundibugyo strain outbreak continues to spread across the continent.
Kenya confirmed its first infection earlier this month and has since recorded nine cases, while Uganda recently declared an end to its previous Ebola outbreak.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Dr Jean Kaseya warned that the outbreak poses a significant public health threat.
“We are facing an extremely serious threat,” he said, noting that the Bundibugyo strain has a fatality rate of nearly 50 percent and has become the most geographically widespread Ebola outbreak on record, affecting several countries across three African regions.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said it had already intensified surveillance measures following Ebola cases reported in Kenya, focusing on early detection, laboratory testing, isolation, infection prevention, contact tracing and protection of health workers.
Nigeria also established an Ebola taskforce in June after the outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May.
Health experts say the spread of the virus beyond Congo has raised concerns about the rapid transmission of the Bundibugyo strain, which has infected more than 9,500 people and claimed over 4,600 lives.
The World Health Organization has warned that the current outbreak is the fastest-spreading on record and could surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people.
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