Nigeria confirms an Ebola case in Abuja and Kenya raises its infections to nine

The Nigerian government confirmed on Tuesday 20 October a case of Ebola in Abuja, the capital, AP reported, citing the Health Ministry. The patient is a woman who had travelled to Uganda, according to the ECDC; she began showing symptoms on 7 October and was admitted to a private hospital in Abuja on the 11th, according to AP. Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said 44 contacts are being traced. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said the patient is in isolation and receiving medical care, according to Legit.ng.

The same day, Kenya confirmed its ninth case, a contact of the first patient who tested positive while in quarantine, according to AP. The first patient, who travelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo via Uganda, died on 5 October. According to the Kenyan ministry, cited by AP, there is no evidence of transmission beyond the known contacts of that first patient, and 134 of the 135 identified contacts are in quarantine.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), in its update of 23 October, puts the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at 9,704 confirmed cases and 4,687 deaths, with data up to 20 October, in eight provinces. The ECDC also reports the Nigerian case and nine cases in Kenya with one death, and notes that since May four cases linked to the Congo have been evacuated or imported into the EU/EEA.

The hospital where the Nigerian patient was treated has not been publicly named, nor has it been said whether any of her contacts have symptoms. AP describes the overall outbreak as caused by the Bundibugyo virus, but does not explicitly link the Nigerian case to that species.