44 People in Isolation After Nigeria's First Ebola Case

Forty-four people who came into contact with Nigeria's confirmed Ebola patient will stay in isolation for at least three weeks.

The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, shared this news on Tuesday evening during an interview on NTA. This announcement came shortly after the ministry confirmed Nigeria's first Ebola case in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Mr Pate mentioned that officials are treating this situation as an imported infection rather than a case of community transmission. "At this moment, we are treating it as an imported case, not community transmission," he stated. He added that if the virus spreads beyond the known contacts, the situation may change.

The 44 individuals in isolation include healthcare workers, patients, caregivers, and travel contacts. They are being kept at a designated facility in Abuja while public health teams work to find out who might be infected. "They remain in communication with their families by phone and other ways, but not physical contact, until we clarify who is infected and who is not," he explained.

Mr Pate also said that Nigeria has been carrying out risk-based surveillance at entry points for the past five months. This effort is led by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) along with Port Health Services. He noted that the aviation industry has been a key partner in this surveillance effort.

According to Mr Pate, officials have obtained the travel manifest of the infected passenger. This document helps them identify others who may have been exposed. The patient was asymptomatic upon entering Nigeria and developed symptoms after arriving in the country. "This makes it less likely that the travel itself exposed folks at risk," Mr Pate said. He added that authorities are still looking into how she entered Nigeria.

The patient, whose identity is not revealed, recently arrived from Uganda on an international flight. She is now in isolation and receiving medical care at a private hospital in Abuja.

Mr Pate urged Nigerians and health workers to stay alert for symptoms like fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, body aches, and severe muscle pain. He mentioned that the Ebola variant in this outbreak is different from the Sudan and Zaire variants. Bleeding may occur, but it is less severe than with other Ebola types.

This case appears amid an ongoing outbreak of Bundibugyo Ebola virus. The NCDC has been monitoring this outbreak since it was reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The minister also highlighted the importance of travel history in assessing suspected cases, especially among people who recently traveled to eastern Africa. He noted that the Abuja patient had no confirmed travel to the DRC, so it is believed she was likely infected in Uganda. "We presume it is likely that it was picked up in Uganda," he emphasized, pointing out the challenges in tracing the source of infectious diseases.

The Nigerian case is part of a wider Ebola outbreak in the DRC, where the virus has spread across several provinces. The WHO reported over 8,700 confirmed cases and more than 4,200 deaths in the DRC as of October 6. The outbreak continues to spread across many health zones and is due to the Bundibugyo virus.

Kenya confirmed its first imported Ebola case linked to the DRC outbreak on October 6. This case involved a Kenyan citizen who had lived in the DRC and traveled to Kenya via Uganda. On October 20, Kenyan authorities reported a ninth case involving a close family member of the first patient.

Uganda, from which the Nigerian patient recently traveled, recorded 20 cases between May and June 2026. The country later declared its outbreak over after going 42 days without a new confirmed case.