Nigeria’s Ebola case puts an airport link to Kenya under investigation

Nigeria confirmed its first imported case of Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease on October 20, becoming the fifth country to detect the virus since the outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May, the [World Health Organization says](https://www.afro.who.int/countries/nigeria/news/nigeria-confirms-imported-case-ebola-bundibugyo-virus-disease). The patient, a woman with recent travel to Uganda, is in isolation and receiving care in Abuja. Her symptoms began on October 7, four days after she arrived in Nigeria. She sought treatment at a private clinic on October 11, and laboratory testing confirmed the infection on October 20. Nigerian officials had identified 44 contacts for monitoring in the WHO’s update. The source of her infection has not been established. A separate question is whether the first patients detected in Nigeria and Kenya crossed paths at Entebbe airport in Uganda. Africa CDC told the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/ebola-congo-uganda-nigeria-kenya-aad964dbbbca2f39e00739108ef7fc0a) that both were there on October 3 and that investigators were checking whether they interacted. That is a line of inquiry, not evidence that one infected the other or that Uganda was the Nigerian patient’s source. AP also reported that officials have given differing accounts of her earlier travel. The scale remains concentrated in Congo: the U.S. CDC’s [October 20 tally](https://www.cdc.gov/ebola/situation-summary/index.html) lists 9,668 confirmed cases and 4,649 deaths across countries linked to the outbreak, including 9,637 cases and 4,646 deaths in Congo. The counts may change as investigations continue. The next key evidence will be contact-tracing results and a clearer reconstruction of the Nigerian patient’s movements; neither is public yet. ~WorldNews ~Ebola