The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is deploying a specialized team of scientists to Nigeria to find out how the nation recorded its first Ebola infection in more than ten years.
According to Reuters, Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya confirmed that the investigation team will be led by Congolese researcher Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who co-discovered the Ebola virus. The team will operate in Abuja to help trace contacts and determine where the patient picked up the pathogen.
The patient is a Ugandan woman married to a Swiss diplomat stationed in Abuja. Laboratory tests confirmed she has the Bundibugyo species of the virus, marking an imported case discovered on October 20. She is currently isolated in an Abuja hospital where her health is improving.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, confirmed the development after medical tests, adding that health workers are closely monitoring 44 people who may have had contact with her. World Health Organization reports indicate that she began displaying symptoms on October 7, four days after she returned to Nigeria from a trip to Uganda.
A primary focus for the incoming scientists is a potential link to an earlier case reported in Kenya involving a traveler from the Democratic Republic of Congo who later passed away. Genetic sequencing showed that the viruses in both individuals are closely matched. Records reveal that the woman traveled through Entebbe Airport on October 3 around the same period as the Kenyan traveler, though they used separate departure gates and she has no memory of seeing him.
The Bundibugyo strain currently has no approved vaccine or specific cure. The ongoing regional outbreak has hit the Democratic Republic of Congo hardest, causing nearly 10,000 cases and over 4,600 deaths, while also reaching Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria.
Federal health authorities and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention have reactivated emergency systems and boosted border surveillance. Nigeria previously contained a brief Ebola outbreak in 2014 that claimed eight lives, and officials are working rapidly to keep this new incident under control.
