Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola case in more than a decade after a woman who recently traveled through Uganda tested positive for the virus in the capital, Abuja.
The patient arrived in Nigeria in early October and began showing symptoms on October 7, the country’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The woman sought treatment at a private hospital on October 11 and was diagnosed with the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola on October 20, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The woman remains in isolation and is receiving medical care. Health authorities have identified 44 people who may have been exposed to the infection.
The patient was initially treated for malaria-like symptoms, but doctors became concerned after her condition failed to improve, Odianosen Ehiakhamen, an official at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), told Arise TV, as reported by Punch.
“For the 44 contacts, they are majorly healthcare workers and support staff of the hospital, because everything has happened within the hospital,” Ehiakhamen said.
Uganda’s Health Ministry said the woman was a Nigerian national who had visited eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) for business before passing through Uganda. The ministry stressed that the location of her infection remained unknown and that Uganda had no active Ebola cases.
Nigeria is the fifth country to report the Bundibugyo virus since the current outbreak began in DR Congo in May, following earlier cases in Uganda, France and Kenya, according to the WHO. Kenya has recorded nine infections linked to an imported case, while the outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread.
The Ebola outbreak in DR Congo has claimed 4,602 lives, with 9,552 confirmed infections recorded since it began in May, according to the country’s Health Ministry. As of October 18, the virus had affected eight provinces, with Ituri accounting for nearly 73% of all cases.
Nigeria previously contained an Ebola outbreak in 2014.
Meanwhile, the US State Department on Monday raised its travel advisory for Kenya from Level 2 to Level 3, urging Americans to reconsider visiting the country due to health risks linked to Ebola, as well as security concerns.
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