Nigeria’s first Ebola case ‘highly similar’ to Kenyan one – Minister

Genomic tests have shown that the Ebola virus found in Nigeria’s first case resembles that of the first case recorded in Kenya earlier this month, Nigeria’s health minister said Friday. Nigeria announced its first Ebola case on Tuesday, the wife of a staff member at Switzerland’s embassy in Abuja, who had returned from Uganda on October 3. She had not visited the Democratic Republic of Congo — the epicentre of the current outbreak, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Friday, contrary to earlier reports by the Ugandan government.

Health authorities on the continent have been trying to trace the source of her infection — with Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention earlier suggesting she may have come into contact at the airport with Kenya’s first patient, who also flew from Uganda on the same day. Based on the the genomic analysis, the case in Nigeria “appears to be closely related to the case identified in the index case in Kenya”, Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate told reporters.

“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, adding in a post on X that the case “is highly similar to that from Kenya”. Following the DRC, Uganda and Kenya, Nigeria has become the fourth African country to be affected by the Bundibugyo species outbreak.

After flaring up in the northeastern DRC in May, the deadly viral haemorrhagic fever spread into neighbouring Uganda, where 20 confirmed cases, including two deaths were recorded before the outbreak there was officially over in August. To date, the epidemic has surpassed 9,700 confirmed cases, including 4,690 deaths, according to WHO figures as of October 20.