ABUJA, Nigeria — Genetic sequencing shows Nigeria’s only confirmed Ebola case is closely related to the virus found in Kenya’s first patient, Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said, according to the Federal Ministry of Information and Premium Times.
Pate said the two viral sequences differ by a single mutation, based on analysis by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and a team at Redeemer’s University led by Christian Happi. “There is no evidence of travel of that index case in Kenya that links it to Nigeria, but the viruses are appearing to be related,” he said, as quoted by Premium Times.
Health officials said Thursday the Nigerian patient — the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat in Abuja — and Kenya’s first patient may have crossed paths at Uganda’s Entebbe airport, where both transited on Oct. 3, The Associated Press reported via NPR. Switzerland’s foreign ministry has said she did not visit Congo. Forty-four of her close contacts are in quarantine, Africa CDC said.
Kenya, battling its first-ever outbreak, this week recorded a second death: a 65-year-old close relative of the first victim, a man who had travelled from Congo. Seven other patients remain in isolation, and the ministry says all cases belong to one cluster with no evidence of community spread, BBC News reported.
The outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo species, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment, began in Congo, where the World Health Organization counted 9,704 confirmed cases and 4,687 deaths as of Oct. 20.
Sources: Federal Ministry of Information (Nigeria), Premium Times, NPR / The Associated Press, BBC News, World Health Organization
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