ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola case in the current outbreak is the wife of a diplomat who had spent a holiday in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention told BBC News.
Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate told the BBC that the 42-year-old, originally from Uganda but based in Abuja, spent two and a half weeks in Kampala and made a two-hour stopover in Ethiopia’s capital before returning home on Oct. 3. “She’s stable, she’s improving,” he said.
Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya said the woman first fell ill on Oct. 6 and went to two private hospitals “thinking that she had malaria” before being admitted on Oct. 11. Public health authorities were alerted on Oct. 19 and the diagnosis was confirmed the next day. She has the Bundibugyo species of Ebola behind the outbreak in Congo, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
Officials have identified 44 contacts, none known to have developed symptoms. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo said 46 people, including two who worked in her home, have been barred from boarding flights, and screening has been stepped up at Nigeria’s international airports.
Uganda’s health ministry disputed the account, describing the woman as a Nigerian national who went to eastern Congo on business and only transited through Uganda, and insisting it has no active cases, BBC News reported. Kaseya urged countries to share information and asked Western nations not to impose travel restrictions.
The Congo outbreak has claimed at least 4,600 lives, with more than 9,500 cases recorded, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Sources: BBC News, The Guardian
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