Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola patient is the wife of a diplomat who travelled to Uganda’s capital, Kampala, for a holiday, the Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, has said.
Mr Kaseya said the woman, originally from Uganda but resident in Abuja, developed symptoms three days after returning to Nigeria on 3 October.
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Providing details of the patient’s medical history, Mr Kaseya said the woman first developed symptoms on 6 October and initially sought treatment at a private hospital, believing she had malaria.
She subsequently visited another private hospital, where she was admitted on 11 October after her condition failed to improve.
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“She went to the first hospital, a private hospital, thinking that she had malaria, and then she went to the second private hospital. She was admitted on the 11th,” Mr Kaseya told the BBC’s Newshour programme.
Details of patient’s travel, condition
According to a report by the BBC, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, confirmed that the 42-year-old woman spent two and a half weeks in Kampala before returning to Abuja through Ethiopia, where she had a two-hour stopover in Addis Ababa.
Mr Pate said the patient, who tested positive for Ebola on Tuesday, was stable and responding to treatment.
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“She’s stable, she’s improving,” he said.
He said health authorities had identified 44 people who came into contact with the patient and were taking measures to prevent further transmission.
“Not all of them have been in close proximity. We cast the net wide so that we contain it as broadly as possible,” he told the BBC.
The minister explained that none of the identified contacts, including the person who travelled with the patient, had developed symptoms.
He added that the woman had remained in Abuja since returning to Nigeria.
Mr Pate said public health authorities were alerted on Monday, 19 October, after the patient’s condition failed to improve.
Her Ebola diagnosis was confirmed the following day after three laboratory tests.
Ebola has an incubation period of two to 21 days, meaning an infected person may not develop symptoms until several days or weeks after exposure.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person, or with contaminated materials. Symptoms can include fever, headache, severe weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea.
Conflicting accounts of patient’s travel history
The latest information from Nigerian authorities and the Africa CDC differs from an earlier account provided by Uganda’s Ministry of Health.
Ugandan authorities had described the patient as a Nigerian national who travelled to eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for business and only passed through Uganda while returning home.
The Ugandan government maintained that the country had no active confirmed Ebola cases and that the woman’s transit through Uganda did not establish that she contracted the virus there.
However, Mr Pate said Nigerian authorities were working with Uganda, Ethiopia and the Africa CDC to establish the patient’s complete travel history and determine where she might have contracted the infection.
“We respect our sister nation of Uganda,” he said. “We have very strong solidarity, we are all in it together.”
Mr Kaseya also called for greater information-sharing among African countries to support investigations into the patient’s movements and possible exposure.
He urged Western countries to avoid imposing travel restrictions, stressing that international collaboration and solidarity were essential to containing the outbreak.
Regional outbreak
Nigeria’s confirmed case comes amid an ongoing Ebola outbreak linked to the Bundibugyo virus in the DRC, with infections also reported in other countries.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported more than 9,500 cases and 4,602 deaths in the DRC as of 19 October.
Kenya, which confirmed its first imported case in early October, reported a ninth case on Tuesday. Its health ministry said all nine cases belonged to one known cluster, with the eight surviving patients responding well to supportive care.
The first Kenyan patient had travelled from the DRC through Uganda before arriving in Nairobi. The development has heightened regional concerns about the movement of the virus across borders.
Uganda also recorded Ebola infections earlier in 2026 but subsequently declared its outbreak over after completing the required period without a new confirmed case.
READ ALSO: Ebola Outbreak: Lawmakers move to amend Nigeria’s 100-year-old Quarantine Act
Nigeria’s current case has renewed attention on the risks posed by international travel during an outbreak, as public health authorities work to establish the source of infection and prevent further transmission.
Health authorities have advised the public to maintain good hand hygiene, avoid contact with the bodily fluids of suspected cases and promptly report possible exposure to public health officials.
Nigeria draws on 2014 experience
Nigeria previously experienced an Ebola outbreak in 2014 after an infected traveller arrived in Lagos from Liberia.
The outbreak resulted in 20 cases, including 19 laboratory-confirmed cases and one probable case, with eight deaths.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Nigeria free of Ebola transmission on 20 October 2014 after the country completed 42 days without a new case.
Meanwhile, Mr Pate expressed confidence in the country’s ability to contain the latest case, citing improvements in disease surveillance, laboratory capacity and the availability of trained epidemiologists.
He said Nigeria’s previous experience with Ebola was one reason for confidence in the current response.
“We have done it in 2014, and we have good public health institutions,” Mr Pate said.
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