Ebola Reaches Nigeria as WHO Says Outbreak Is More Complex
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that the Ebola outbreak in Africa is becoming more complex, with cases now present in East and West Africa. The announcement came two days after Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case on Tuesday, October 20. Nigeria is now the fourth African country affected by an outbreak that was announced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in mid-May.
Nigeria's patient is a woman who had travelled from Uganda and was detected in Abuja, the capital. Al Jazeera reports that she is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja. The case was the first in Nigeria in about a decade, and it is the first case of the Bundibugyo strain, a form of the Ebola virus, reported in the country. Nigeria is tracing 44 people who had contact with her.
Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case earlier in October and has since reported eight more. Kenyan health officials traced all 135 contacts of that first case. Kenya, the DRC and Nigeria all have active or recent cases of the Bundibugyo strain.
Uganda had Ebola cases earlier this year. It recorded 20 confirmed cases, 15 of them imported from the DRC, and two deaths before it was declared Ebola-free in August.
Links between the cases are now under investigation. Wessam Mankoula, an official with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said the first cases in Nigeria and Kenya both left Entebbe, the international airport in Uganda, on October 3. Authorities are investigating a possible encounter between the two patients at that airport. Separately, health authorities are trying to determine where Nigeria's first patient was infected. Patrick Otim, an emergency response manager at the WHO, said the source of that infection is still unknown.
The head of Africa CDC urged African countries to strengthen their Ebola preparedness, saying that geographical distance offered no guarantee of protection. Reuters reported his remarks on Tuesday, October 21.
Mohamed Janabi, the WHO's regional director for Africa, described the situation at an online media briefing on Thursday. "We are facing a more complex outbreak landscape," he said.
The outbreak itself began in the DRC, where health authorities are responding to Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the north-eastern Ituri Province. As of May 22, DRC health authorities had reported 670 suspected cases, 61 of them confirmed, and 160 suspected deaths.
