Nigeria isolates 44 after tracing Ebola case to Ugandan airport
Health officials in Abuja have placed 44 people in quarantine while investigators determine if the first Nigerian Ebola patient crossed paths with a Kenyan case at Entebbe International Airport.
By Carmen Wojcik ·
Nigerian health authorities have placed 44 people in quarantine following the confirmation of the country's first Ebola case since 2014. The patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a diplomat serving in Abuja. She returned to Nigeria earlier this month after vacationing in Uganda in September.
The primary focus of the current investigation is a potential link between the Nigerian patient and the first confirmed Ebola case in Kenya. Both individuals were present at Entebbe International Airport on the same day. The first Kenyan patient has since died. That individual traveled from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Kenya via Uganda.
Dr. Wessam Mankoula, the head of emergency preparedness and response at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, addressed the inquiry at a press briefing on Thursday. He stated that investigators are examining whether there was some sort of interaction between the two cases at the airport. Mankoula confirmed that the Nigerian patient is currently receiving treatment.
This case marks the first Ebola infection recorded in West Africa during the current outbreak. Nigeria is the fourth country on the continent to report a case. It is also the farthest from the epicenter in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreak began in eastern Congo in May and has become the fastest spreading on record.
The disease has caused at least 4,600 deaths in Congo. Roughly 9,700 people have been infected there. Neighboring Uganda reported about 20 cases initially but was declared free of Ebola in August. Kenya recorded its first case in early October. Eight additional cases have been confirmed in Kenya since then.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or through contaminated items. The virus causes severe fever and can be fatal. People are generally not considered infectious until symptoms appear. Investigators in Abuja are working to establish how the diplomat's wife was exposed to the virus in the first place.
