Nigeria records first Ebola case as outbreak spreads

LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) — Nigeria said Tuesday it had recorded its first Ebola case of Africa’s latest outbreak, as Kenya declared its ninth case, prompting a regional health official to warn of “an extremely serious threat.”

The case in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, was detected in a woman who had traveled from Uganda to the capital Abuja, the government confirmed.

The patient arrived on an international flight from Uganda and was admitted to a private hospital, “where she received care for several days before the diagnosis was confirmed,” Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said in a statement.

“She is currently in isolation and receiving medical care,” he said.

“Contact tracing has commenced with 44 close contacts identified presently,” the statement added, “with public health teams identifying and monitoring people who may have been exposed, including healthcare workers, patients, caregivers and travel contacts.”

Late Tuesday, the Ugandan Health Ministry said there were “no confirmed active Ebola cases” in the country, and that “travel through Uganda does not establish that infection occurred here.”

It is the west African country’s first registered Ebola case since 2014.

Since a major Ebola outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in May, the deadly viral hemorrhagic fever has spread to several countries across the continent, including to neighboring Uganda.

Kenya’s health ministry meanwhile reported its ninth Ebola case of the outbreak on Tuesday.

“This Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak has already become the most geographically widespread Ebola outbreak in history, affecting multiple countries across three regions of Africa,” said the director general of Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya.

In several months, the DRC’s Ebola epidemic has become the deadliest in the country’s history, killing 4,381 people out of more than 9,000 confirmed cases, according to the health authorities.