Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola patient is the wife of a diplomat who travelled to Kampala, Uganda, for a holiday, according to the Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Kaseya.
Kaseya says the 42-year-old woman, who resides in Abuja, developed symptoms three days after returning to Nigeria on October 3.
Mediaplusng.com reports that the woman first experienced symptoms on October 6 and initially sought treatment at a private hospital, believing she had malaria.
When her condition failed to improve, she visited another private hospital, where she was admitted on October 11.
Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, says the patient is stable and responding to treatment following confirmation of her Ebola infection.
According to Pate, the woman spent approximately two and a half weeks in Kampala before travelling back to Abuja through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she had a two-hour stopover.
Health authorities say they were alerted on October 19 after her condition failed to improve. Her infection was confirmed the following day after three laboratory tests.
Authorities have identified 44 people who may have come into contact with the patient and have commenced contact tracing to prevent further transmission.
Pate says none of the identified contacts, including the person who travelled with the patient, had developed symptoms at the time of his statement.
He explains that health officials deliberately cast a wide net to identify potential exposures and strengthen containment efforts.
However, conflicting accounts have emerged over the woman’s travel history and possible source of infection.
Uganda’s Ministry of Health previously described the patient as a Nigerian national who travelled to eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo for business and passed through Uganda while returning home.
Ugandan authorities have maintained that the country had no active confirmed Ebola cases at the time and that the woman’s transit through Uganda does not establish where she contracted the virus.
Nigerian authorities say they are working with Uganda, Ethiopia and the Africa CDC to establish her complete travel history and determine the likely source of infection.
Pate has emphasised the importance of cooperation between the countries, while Kaseya has called for stronger information-sharing among African nations to support investigations and contain the outbreak.
The development comes amid a wider regional Ebola outbreak linked to the Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with other countries also reporting infections.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported more than 9,500 cases and 4,602 deaths in the DRC as of October 19.
Kenya has also reported nine cases within one known cluster, heightening concerns about the movement of the virus across international borders.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person, or contaminated materials. Symptoms may include fever, headache, severe weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea. The incubation period ranges from two to 21 days.
Public health authorities are urging Nigerians to maintain good hand hygiene, avoid contact with bodily fluids from suspected cases and promptly report possible exposure to health officials.
As investigations continue, the immediate priority remains identifying potential contacts, establishing the source of infection and preventing further transmission.
