9,500 Ebola Cases: Nigeria Confirms Case as Origin Dispute Widens

A Ugandan-born woman married to a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja has become Nigeria's first confirmed Ebola patient in more than a decade. The Swiss foreign ministry announced on Friday that the diplomat's wife did not travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the current outbreak began in mid-May. Instead, the ministry stated she likely contracted the virus while traveling with her husband in Uganda. This official account directly conflicts with earlier reports from Ugandan authorities, who previously said the woman had visited the eastern region of the DR Congo.

The discrepancy in travel history has raised concerns about the ability of health agencies to contain a virus that has now reached a fourth African country. The outbreak, which began in the DR Congo, subsequently spread to Uganda and Kenya. Uganda reported cases in May and June, but the World Health Organization declared the nation Ebola-free in August. A Ugandan government spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday that the country had no active cases and would publish details if that changed.

Investigators are now examining whether the patient may have been exposed in Kenya. Dr. Wessam Mankoula, head of emergency preparedness at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that both the Nigerian patient and a Kenyan case traveler passed through Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 3 October. Catherine Smallwood, a WHO Ebola incident manager in the DR Congo, stated that staff there had no record of the patient visiting the country. She said officials must compare the timing of this airport encounter with the start of the Nigerian patient's symptoms to determine if the infection occurred there.

Experts remain divided on the likelihood of transmission at the airport. Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist on the WHO's Ebola emergency committee, described the theory as very speculative without evidence that the two individuals shared the same space in a way that would facilitate transmission. She argued that simply being present at a large airport does not constitute a supported epidemiological link based on current scientific standards.

Nigeria's health minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, said the case is contained and contact tracing is ongoing. He stated that the goal is to prevent the virus from spreading to local communities. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which no approved treatment or vaccine currently exists. Since being announced on 15 May, the epidemic has infected more than 9,500 people and killed nearly half of them, making it the largest outbreak in DR Congo's history.