Nigeria Confirms First Ebola Case Since 2014 as Officials Trace Route Through Uganda
A Swiss diplomat's Ugandan-born wife is the first Nigerian patient in over a decade, complicating an outbreak that has already infected more than 9,500 people.
By Layla Fontaine ·
Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola case in more than ten years, a development that has raised alarms across the continent as health officials struggle to pinpoint how the virus arrived in the country. The patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat stationed in Abuja. According to the Swiss foreign ministry, she became infected while traveling with her husband in Uganda and did not visit the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the current outbreak began in mid-May.
This account directly contradicts earlier reports from Uganda, which stated the woman had traveled to eastern DR Congo. A Ugandan government spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday that the country had no current Ebola cases and would release public information if that changed. The conflicting narratives have intensified debate over whether authorities can still contain an outbreak that has already become the most geographically widespread in history. Uganda reported cases in May and June, and the World Health Organization declared the nation Ebola-free in August.
Health agencies are now investigating whether the infection occurred in Kenya. Dr. Wessam Mankoula, head of emergency preparedness at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that both the Nigerian patient and a Kenyan Ebola patient passed through Entebbe airport in Uganda on October 3. Catherine Smallwood, a WHO Ebola incident manager, stated that a link to the Kenyan case is possible but requires a comparison of timelines to determine if the airport was the source of transmission.
Not all experts agree with the airport theory. Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist on the WHO’s emergency committee, described the hypothesis as very speculative without proof that the two individuals shared space in a way that would facilitate infection. She argued that simply being in the same large airport does not constitute a supported epidemiological link by current standards.
In Abuja, Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said the case remains contained and that contact tracing is underway. "We are trying to contain it so it doesn't go out to the communities," he said. Melaku Yirga, vice-president for Africa at Prosper Global, emphasized the need for rapid cross-border information sharing and adequate resources for frontline workers to manage the spread.
The outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, has no approved vaccine or treatment. First announced on May 15, it has infected more than 9,500 people and killed nearly half of them. It stands as the largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo's history and the second largest globally, following the 2014 to 2016 West Africa epidemic that infected more than 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000.
