Nigeria Confirms First Ebola Case in Decade as Origin Dispute Intensifies

More than 9,500 people have been infected by the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, which has now spread to a fourth African country. Nigeria confirmed its first case in over a decade on Friday, marking a significant expansion of the epidemic that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in mid-May. The new case involves the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat stationed in Abuja, a detail that has triggered conflicting accounts regarding the patient's travel history.

The Swiss foreign ministry stated that the diplomat's wife had not visited the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the virus was first detected. Instead, the ministry asserted she contracted the virus while traveling with her husband in Uganda. This account directly contradicts earlier reports from Ugandan officials who claimed the woman traveled to eastern DR Congo. A Ugandan government spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday that Uganda currently has no Ebola cases and would publicly disclose any new infections if they emerged.

Health agencies are now investigating a potential link to a patient 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 Ebola patient traveled through Entebbe airport in Uganda on October 3. Catherine Smallwood, a WHO Ebola incident manager based in DR Congo, stated that a connection to the Kenyan case is possible but requires comparison of travel timing with the onset of symptoms to determine the likelihood of infection at the airport.

Experts remain divided on the validity of the airport transmission theory. Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist on the WHO's Ebola emergency committee, described the theory as very speculative without evidence of shared space. She argued that random presence at a large airport does not constitute a supported epidemiological link under current standards. The WHO continues to investigate the source of the infection, with staff in DR Congo reporting no information indicating the patient visited that country.

Nigerian health minister Muhammad Ali Pate said the case remains contained and that contact tracing is ongoing. He emphasized the need to prevent the virus from spreading to local communities. The outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain, has no approved treatment or vaccine. It is the largest and deadliest outbreak in DR Congo's history, having killed nearly half of the infected. Melaku Yirga, vice-president for Africa at Prosper Global, stressed the need for rapid cross-border information sharing and adequate resources for frontline health workers to manage the situation.