Nigeria's First Ebola Patient Is a Diplomat's Wife Who Holidayed in Uganda, Officials Say

Nigeria's first confirmed case of Ebola since the outbreak in East Africa began in May is the wife of a diplomat who travelled to Uganda's capital for a holiday, the head of Africa's health agency has told the BBC.

The woman is originally from Uganda but based in Abuja. Nigeria's health minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, confirmed to the BBC that the 42-year-old patient spent two and a half weeks in Kampala and also made a two-hour stopover in Ethiopia's capital on her return journey.

Dr Jean Kaseya of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said the woman fell ill three days after arriving home in the Nigerian capital on 3 October. According to Pate, she is stable and improving.

Kaseya explained that she first developed symptoms on 6 October and sought medical help, believing she had malaria. She went first to one private hospital, then to a second, where she was admitted on 11 October. Malaria is endemic in Nigeria, and its symptoms — high temperature, headaches, muscle aches, vomiting and diarrhoea — are similar to those of Ebola.

After her condition failed to improve, public health authorities were alerted on Monday 19 October. Pate said her diagnosis was confirmed the following day after three laboratory tests. Ebola's incubation period ranges from two to 21 days, meaning those exposed may not fall ill for several weeks.

The minister said the authorities had identified 44 people who had been in contact with the woman, all now in isolation. None of them — including the person she travelled with — is known to have developed symptoms, and she has not travelled outside Abuja since landing. Pate said the net had been cast wide so the virus could be contained as broadly as possible. With no quick Ebola tests available to check travellers, officials rely on monitoring temperatures.

There have, however, been conflicting accounts of the woman's movements. The comments from Pate and Kaseya contradict an earlier statement by Uganda's health ministry, which described her as a Nigerian national who had gone to eastern DR Congo on business and only transited through Uganda. It insisted there are currently no confirmed active Ebola cases in the country and that passing through Uganda did not mean she contracted the virus there.

Both sides have sought to play down any tension. Pate said Nigerian officials were working with Uganda, Ethiopia and the Africa CDC to establish the full facts: 'We respect our sister nation of Uganda. We have very strong solidarity, we are all in it together.' Kaseya urged African countries to share information so investigators can trace the woman's movements and establish where she may have been infected, and he encouraged Western countries not to impose travel restrictions, saying collaboration and solidarity are the way to stop the outbreak.

The wider picture is grim. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May has claimed at least 4,600 lives, with more than 9,500 cases recorded. Uganda, where at least two people died, declared itself free of the disease in August after its last patient was discharged. The virus has recently spread to Kenya, which has reported at least nine infections; on Monday the United States advised its citizens to reconsider travel to Kenya because of health risks and raised its advisory level for the country.

Ebola is a rare but deadly disease caused by a virus, spreading between people through contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood or vomit. As it progresses, vomiting and diarrhoea develop and it can lead to organ failure; some, though not all, patients suffer internal and external bleeding. The DR Congo outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which is relatively rare and has no approved vaccine or treatment, though trials are under way.

Nigeria has history on its side. In 2014 the country successfully contained an Ebola outbreak that resulted in 20 confirmed cases and eight deaths. Pate expressed confidence in repeating that success, citing strengthened disease surveillance, laboratories and thousands of trained epidemiologists. 'Nigeria has muscle memory that has been activated, but we are not fighting the past outbreak in exactly the same way. We have to be vigilant,' he said.

Attention now turns to the monitoring of the 44 contacts and to the joint effort by Nigeria, Uganda and Ethiopia to establish where the patient was infected — a finding that will shape assessments of how far this outbreak may yet spread across the region.