Nigeria confirms Ebola case as outbreak spreads into western Africa

Key Points:

• Nigeria has confirmed an Ebola case in its capital, Abuja, involving a woman who arrived from Uganda and began showing symptoms on 7 October before being diagnosed in hospital.
• Nigerian health authorities are tracing 44 contacts of the patient to contain the outbreak, while Uganda’s health ministry clarified the woman was Nigerian and had been on a business trip to Congo, with no confirmed Ebola cases in Uganda.
• The Ebola outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, is spreading rapidly across multiple African countries, with Kenya recently confirming its first cases and Uganda previously affected but now declared free of the virus.
• The Africa Centers for Disease Control described the situation as an extremely serious threat, noting the outbreak is the most geographically extensive in history and has a fatality rate nearing 50%.
• Nigeria has increased surveillance and preparedness efforts, including early detection, contact tracing, and infection control, following Ebola detections in the region, as the outbreak approaches a death toll that could surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic.