Marta Iraola Iribarren/Euronews
African health ministers will hold crisis talks on Ebola as Nigeria becomes the fourth country to confirm a case. The patient is now in isolation, while her contacts, including her spouse, a Swiss national, are being monitored.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has called for urgent action to contain the growing Ebola outbreak and is convening African health ministers to coordinate the response, as Nigeria becomes the latest country to confirm a case.
The outbreak began in Congo and has so far also spread to Kenya and Uganda; the latter said it has no cases at the moment. Such geographic spread across Central, Eastern and Western Africa demands urgent, coordinated action, Africa CDC said.
“Ebola is crossing borders. Our response must move faster, with stronger coordination, greater solidarity and decisive political leadership,” said Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa CDC in a press release.
“We have the expertise and the capacity on this continent. We must mobilise them together to stop this outbreak and save lives,” he added.
On Tuesday, Nigeria reported its first case, linked to a traveller from Uganda who arrived there earlier this month.
Uganda, which declared itself Ebola-free in July after recording 20 cases, has denied claims that Nigeria’s first case originated there.
“Travel through Uganda does not establish that infection occurred here. The location of exposure remains under investigation,” the ministry said in a statement on X. The ministry insisted Uganda has “no confirmed active Ebola cases.”
Nigerian authorities said they were tracing 44 contacts.
The patient, who entered Nigeria on 5 October, was initially treated for malaria but failed to recover, arousing suspicion among the attending physicians, Odianosen Ehiakhamen, an assistant director at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, local media reported. The patient is now in isolation and receiving medical care.
Ehiakhamen said the contacts are mostly healthcare workers, along with the patient’s spouse, a Swiss national.
Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, including blood and vomit, or via contact with contaminated materials and surfaces, such as bedding and clothing. Congo is experiencing its deadliest outbreak, with at least 4,000 deaths since May and 9,552 confirmed cases.
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which no licensed vaccine or specific treatment exists, although trials are underway in Congo.
The risk of importation into Europe from the outbreak areas remains very low, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
“While sporadic importations cannot be excluded, the probability of multiple independent importations is very low, even in a pessimistic scenario whereby incidence continues to rise in the affected regions,” the Center wrote on its website.
