Wire reporting: (AP, via NPR), (Reuters, via The Straits Times (Reuters report))

Primary sources: Nigeria health ministry statement, Uganda health ministry statement, NCDC update, WHO Africa release

Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case on Oct. 20: a woman in Abuja who had recently arrived on an international flight from Uganda and spent several days at a private hospital before the diagnosis, the federal health ministry said³. She is in isolation, and 44 close contacts, including health workers, patients, caregivers and travel contacts, have been identified for monitoring^3,7,8.

WHO's Africa office, citing Nigeria's ministry, said her symptoms began Oct. 7, four days after she arrived, that she sought care on Oct. 11 and that testing confirmed the Bundibugyo virus, making Nigeria the fifth country to detect it since Congo declared its outbreak on May 15⁷. NCDC held its first incident management meeting on Oct. 21, after the minister declared the outbreak⁵, and its lab director told that meeting that three molecular tests found the Bundibugyo strain, Daily Trust reported⁶.

"She's stable, she's improving," Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate told the BBC¹.

Where she was infected has not been established. Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya told the BBC she is a diplomat's wife, originally from Uganda, who went to Kampala on holiday, and Pate told the BBC she spent about two and a half weeks there and made a two-hour stopover in Addis Ababa before landing in Abuja on Oct. 3^1,2. Kaseya said she developed symptoms on Oct. 6, went first to a private hospital thinking she had malaria, and was admitted at a second private hospital on Oct. 11¹.

Uganda's health ministry said on Oct. 20 that she was a Nigerian woman who went to eastern Congo on business and passed through Uganda in early October without symptoms⁴. "Travel through Uganda does not establish that infection occurred here," the ministry said, adding that Uganda had no confirmed active cases and that Nigeria had not yet shared her itinerary or clinical history⁴. Pate told the BBC that Nigeria is working with Uganda, Ethiopia and Africa CDC to establish the facts¹. WHO's representative in Nigeria, Pavel Ursu, said at an Oct. 22 online briefing that the travel details WHO received from Nigeria covered only Uganda, Reuters reported¹⁴.

Al Jazeera, carrying AFP, AP and Reuters copy from the Oct. 22 briefing, identified her as the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat in Abuja and said a Swiss government statement to Reuters held that she is believed to have contracted the disease while travelling in Uganda¹⁷. Wessam Mankoula, Africa CDC's head of emergency preparedness and response, said both Nigeria's first case and Kenya's first case left Entebbe on Oct. 3 and that a possible encounter is under investigation; he and Kaseya said they had no validated information she had been to Congo¹⁷. Uganda's government spokesman, speaking to AFP, rejected linking the case to Uganda because she holidayed there¹⁷. Mankoula said more contacts than the original 44 had since been identified but did not give a new figure¹⁷. WHO emergency response manager Patrick Otim said the source of infection was still unknown and that investigators were looking at which Abuja health facilities she visited between symptom onset and hospitalisation¹⁷. WHO's Pavel Ursu said she had been in Uganda since Sept. 16 before arriving in Abuja on Oct. 3, according to an AFP-JIJI report in The Japan Times¹⁸. Pate said Thursday that her contacts had been tracked and that an undisclosed number of high-risk individuals have been quarantined in a facility^18,20.

On Friday the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs told Reuters that the patient, whom it identified as a Swiss national, and her husband did not travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo, contradicting Uganda's Oct. 20 account, Arab News and Nation Africa reported, carrying Reuters^23,24,26. A Thursday email from the same department, cited by Premium Times via Reuters, said she is a Ugandan-born woman married to a Swiss diplomat in Abuja, had been treated at a private clinic there for about a week, was believed to have contracted the virus during a visit to Uganda about two weeks earlier, and that her husband, who travelled with her, is in isolation without symptoms²². Africa CDC's Wessam Mankoula said there was no validated information confirming DRC travel and that Nigeria and Uganda were exchanging information to reconstruct her itinerary²². WHO's Pavel Ursu said information given to WHO indicated she had been in Uganda from Sept. 16 and returned to Abuja on Oct. 3, without established travel outside Uganda²². France 24 recapped WHO's Oct. 22 more-complex warning and added no new facts on her itinerary²¹.

Nigeria's Senate and House of Representatives asked the government to make health screening compulsory for arriving passengers at all entry points and to release emergency funds to health agencies, and the Senate urged replacing the 1926 Quarantine Act¹⁰. Pate told reporters: "We are doing contact tracing, and we are putting containment measures to ensure that it doesn't go into our population"¹⁰.

WHO Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Janabi said in a video message posted on his X account on Oct. 21 that "one imported case does not by itself mean that Nigeria is experiencing an Ebola outbreak," Premium Times reported⁹. Virologist Oyewale Tomori, chairman of the West African National Academy of Scientists, told Arise TV that the time between her symptoms and confirmation should push authorities to strengthen diagnosis, and urged them to prepare for possible further cases among the 44 contacts, the paper reported⁹.

At an online media briefing on Oct. 22, Janabi said: "We are facing a more complex outbreak landscape. Nigeria has confirmed an imported case of Ebola virus disease," according to an AFP report carried by IOL¹⁵, Al Jazeera¹⁷ and Africanews¹⁹. That report counts Nigeria as the fourth African country affected by the outbreak^15,19, while WHO's Africa office called it the fifth country to detect a case⁷.

The Congo outbreak has caused more than 9,500 cases and at least 4,600 deaths, according to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control figures cited by the BBC¹; Congo's health authorities put it at 4,381 deaths among more than 9,000 confirmed cases since mid-May, AFP reported¹⁵; and the Bundibugyo species behind it has no approved vaccine or treatment¹. Nigeria's ministry says Ebola spreads through direct contact with an infected person's blood or body fluids, that people cannot spread it before symptoms begin, and that suspected cases can be reported to NCDC on 6232³. This is a news report, not medical advice.

Sources

1. BBCNigeria's first Ebola patient holidayed in Uganda, officials sayOct 21, 3:29 PM
2. Premium Times (Africa CDC report)Nigeria’s first Ebola patient is diplomat’s wife who holidayed in Uganda — Africa CDCOct 21, 7:02 PM
3. Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health and Social WelfareFG CONFIRMS EBOLA DISEASE CASE IN FCT, ACTIVATES PUBLIC HEALTH RESPONSEOct 19, 7:00 PM
4. (AP, via NPR)Nigeria confirms an Ebola case in Abuja as a woman arriving from Uganda tests positiveOct 20, 4:37 PM
5. (Reuters, via The Straits Times (Reuters report))WHO was not told that Nigeria's Ebola patient travelled to Congo, official saysAlso (Reuters, via Arab News), (Reuters, via Nation Africa)Oct 22, 8:41 AM

Uganda Ministry of Health · NCDC · Daily Trust+16 moreHide

1. Uganda Ministry of HealthReported Ebola Case in Nigeria: We Call for Calm and VigilanceOct 20, 5:08 PM
2. NCDC#TodayInNCDC: first Incident Management MeetingOct 21, 11:23 AM
3. Daily Trust‘She’s a diplomat’, NCDC gives update on Abuja Ebola patientOct 21, 11:12 AM
4. WHO Regional Office for AfricaNigeria confirms imported case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus diseaseOct 19, 7:00 PM
5. Premium Times (WHO report)Ebola: One imported case does not mean Nigeria is experiencing outbreak – WHOOct 22, 12:19 AM
6. AllAfricaNigeria: No Vaccine, Specific Treatment for Ebola Strain in Nigeria - WHOOct 22, 2:56 AM
7. AllAfricaAfrica: Nigeria's First Ebola Patient Is Diplomat's Wife Who Holidayed in Uganda - Africa CDCOct 22, 4:17 AM
8. AllAfricaNigeria: Ebola - One Imported Case Does Not Mean Nigeria Is Experiencing Outbreak - WHOOct 22, 5:08 AM
9. ReutersWHO was not told that Nigeria's Ebola patient travelled to Congo, official saysOct 22, 8:45 AM
10. IOLEbola outbreak spreads to four African countries as WHO sounds alarmOct 22, 9:23 AM
11. ReutersLIVE: WHO Africa briefing on EbolaOct 22, 8:26 AM
12. Al JazeeraWHO warns ‘more complex’ Ebola outbreak now present in 3 African countriesOct 22, 3:31 PM
13. The Japan TimesAfrica faces ‘complex’ Ebola outbreak after spread to Nigeria, WHO warnsOct 23, 12:37 AM
14. AfricanewsWHO: Africa facing 'complex' Ebola outbreak after Nigeria reports first caseOct 23, 12:45 AM
15. SCMPWHO warns Africa faces ‘complex’ Ebola outbreak as virus reaches NigeriaOct 23, 2:49 AM
16. France 24Africa faces 'complex' Ebola outbreak after spread to Nigeria: WHOOct 23, 4:28 AM
17. Premium TimesEbola: Swiss government says Nigeria’s patient likely contracted virus in UgandaOct 23, 4:24 AM
18. ReutersNigeria Ebola patient did not travel to Congo, Swiss government saysOct 23, 4:25 AM
19. AllAfricaNigeria: Ebola - Swiss Government Says Nigeria's Patient Likely Contracted Virus in UgandaOct 23, 4:55 AM

Read the original at BBC ↗