Nigeria Isolates 44 People After Possible Ebola Contact at Ugandan Hub

Nigerian health authorities have placed 44 individuals in quarantine following the confirmation of the country's first Ebola case in over a decade.

The confirmed patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a diplomat stationed in Abuja. She returned to Nigeria earlier this month after spending September on vacation in Uganda. Dr. Wessam Mankoula, the head of emergency preparedness and response at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that the woman is currently receiving treatment.

The current outbreak began in May in eastern Congo and has become the fastest spreading on record. At least 4,600 people have died in that country, with roughly 9,700 infections confirmed. Uganda, a neighbor to Congo, initially reported about 20 cases but was declared free of the virus in August. Kenya recorded its first case in early October, followed by eight additional confirmed cases. The first Kenyan patient, who has died, traveled from Congo to Kenya via Uganda.

Nigeria is now the fourth African country to record an Ebola case in this outbreak. As the most populous nation on the continent, it is also the first in West Africa to report a case. This location places it farthest from the epicenter in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The geographic distance makes the potential transmission route a focus for investigators.

Both the Nigerian patient and the first Kenyan patient were present at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda on the same day. This overlap prompted the Africa CDC to launch an inquiry into whether the two individuals had direct contact. Mankoula said at a press briefing that officials are looking into whether there was some sort of interaction between the two cases at the airport.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or through contaminated items. The disease causes severe fever and can be fatal, but people are generally not considered infectious until symptoms appear. Investigators are working to establish how the Nigerian patient was exposed to the virus in the first place.

The Africa CDC will continue its review of the airport contact while Nigerian authorities maintain the quarantine measures for the 44 close contacts identified so far.