Nigeria confirms its first Ebola case, a woman who flew in from Uganda

Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola case, widening an outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May and has already crossed into Uganda and Kenya.

The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said on Tuesday that the patient is a woman who flew into Nigeria from Uganda. She was admitted to a private hospital and treated for several days before the diagnosis was confirmed, and she is now in isolation and receiving care. Health workers are tracing 44 people identified as her recent close contacts.

The ministry ordered every health facility in the country on high alert to identify and isolate suspected cases quickly. “There is no need for panic,” officials said, urging people to wash their hands, learn the symptoms and contact public health authorities if they think they have been exposed.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention had already rated the risk of the virus arriving as high, pointing to regional spread, international travel, porous borders and early symptoms that are easily mistaken for malaria or Lassa fever.

Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said the outbreak “has already become the most geographically extensive in history”, and that his agency was mobilising support for Nigeria.

Kenya’s ninth case

Kenya’s health ministry also reported a ninth case on Tuesday, a 24-year-old man who is a close family member of the country’s first patient, a man who had lived in Congo and died in Nairobi on 5 October. He was already in quarantine and was “isolated at the first sign of illness”, the ministry said.

“All nine cases belong to one cluster,” said Patrick Amoth, Kenya’s director-general for health, adding that there was no evidence of spread beyond that group. Eight patients are stable, and 134 of 135 contacts have been traced and quarantined.

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment. Congo has recorded more than 9,500 cases, about half of them fatal.