The Ministry of Health of Nigeria announced this Tuesday the detection of a case of Ebola, the first recorded in the country corresponding to the Bundibugyo variant, linked to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Kenya. Uganda, for its part, declared at the end of July that it was free of the virus after confirming two deaths and 20 infections.
The affected person is a Nigerian citizen who began to experience symptoms on October 7, shortly after returning from a trip to Uganda, as detailed in a statement by the Minister of Health, Muhammad Ali Pate.
Initially, the patient was treated at a private clinic, where her condition deteriorated until the infection by the virus was confirmed. At this moment, "she is in isolation and is receiving quality medical care," the health official specified.
The authorities have identified that the woman was in close contact with at least 44 people, whose movements are already being traced while efforts are made to locate them.
In this way, the response teams are registering and inspecting all potential exposures, including doctors and other health professionals, patients, caregivers, and contacts who coincided with the woman during the journey, the minister added.
"We are doing everything possible to contain this case by tracing all the contacts that the person may have had," he emphasized.
The Ebola outbreak declared in May in the DRC has already surpassed 9,500 cases and 4,600 deaths, according to the latest official count released by Congolese authorities, in a context of expansion of the disease that the day before had spread to an eighth province of the African country.