Nigeria’s First Ebola Patient Is Diplomat’s Wife Who Visited Uganda, Africa CDC Says

Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola patient in the current outbreak is the wife of a diplomat who travelled to Kampala, Uganda, for a holiday, according to Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

Kaseya said the 42-year-old woman, who is originally from Uganda and resides in Abuja, developed symptoms three days after returning to Nigeria on October 3. Her travel history has drawn attention as health authorities investigate where she may have contracted the virus.

According to information provided by Kaseya and Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, the woman first developed symptoms on October 6. Believing she had malaria, she initially sought treatment at a private hospital before visiting another facility, where she was admitted on October 11 after her condition failed to improve.

“She went to the first hospital, a private hospital, thinking that she had malaria, and then she went to the second private hospital. She was admitted on the 11th,” Kaseya told the BBC’s Newshour programme.

Pate said the patient had spent about two and a half weeks in Kampala before returning to Abuja through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she had a two-hour stopover. Her Ebola diagnosis was confirmed on October 20 following three laboratory tests. Pate said she was stable and responding to treatment.

“She’s stable, she’s improving,” the minister said.

Health authorities have identified 44 people who had contact with the patient and are monitoring them for possible symptoms. Pate said the list included the person who travelled with her, but none of the identified contacts had developed symptoms at the time of his statement. He added that authorities were alerted on October 19 after the woman’s condition failed to improve.

However, accounts of the woman’s travel history differ. Ugandan authorities previously described her as a Nigerian national who had travelled to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for business and passed through Uganda on her return. They said her transit through Uganda did not establish that she contracted Ebola there. Nigerian authorities said they were working with Uganda, Ethiopia and the Africa CDC to clarify her movements and possible exposure.

The case comes amid an outbreak involving the Bundibugyo virus in the DRC, with infections reported elsewhere in the region. Kenya has also reported cases linked to a known cluster, while Uganda declared its earlier outbreak over after meeting the required criteria. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control figures cited in the source put the DRC’s outbreak toll at more than 9,500 cases and 4,602 deaths as of October 19; those figures should be checked against the latest official reporting before publication.

Ebola can cause fever, headache, severe weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea. It spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person, or with contaminated materials. The incubation period is typically two to 21 days. Nigerian health authorities are monitoring contacts and strengthening public health measures to limit further transmission.

Nigeria previously contained an Ebola outbreak in 2014 after an infected traveller arrived from Liberia. The outbreak involved 20 cases, including 19 laboratory-confirmed cases and one probable case, and resulted in eight deaths. The World Health Organization declared Nigeria free of Ebola transmission on October 20, 2014, after 42 days without a new case. Pate said the country’s experience, public health institutions and disease surveillance capacity would support the current response.