Nigeria Ebola case matches DR Congo strain

LAGOS: The Ebola case detected in Nigeria is the Bundibugyo strain behind a major outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), officials said on Wednesday, marking the spread of the deadly disease to more parts of Africa.

The case, detected in a woman diplomat in Nigeria — the first there since the current outbreak in the DRC — has revived memories of a widespread outbreak in 2014 that struck several countries in the region.

Nigeria is the fourth African country affected by the outbreak, which this week spread across the continent, with Kenya in the east reporting nine cases since Oct 6.

The DRC's Ebola epidemic has become the deadliest in the country's history, killing 4,381 people out of more than 9,000 confirmed cases since mid-May, according to health authorities.

The patient in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, travelled from Uganda to the capital, Abuja, on Oct 3, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said.

"We did three levels of tests, but all molecular. The strain was Bundibugyo," said Olajumoke Babatunde, director of the public health laboratory service at the NCDC.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also confirmed that it was the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is still neither a vaccine nor a specific treatment.

"This person is actually a diplomat," another official said, adding that the patient's condition had deteriorated to "multi-organ failure". The official did not disclose the diplomat's nationality.

In August, Uganda was officially declared Ebola-free by the WHO after recording 20 cases — almost all of them in people who had travelled from the DRC.

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) director-general Jean Kaseya warned on Tuesday of "an extremely serious threat", with fatality rates in the DRC rapidly approaching 50 per cent.

The Africa CDC has called a high-level meeting of health ministers for next Wednesday to assess the outbreak, coordinate cross-border efforts, support affected countries and strengthen continental preparedness.

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'Geographically widespread'

"This Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak has already become the most geographically widespread Ebola outbreak in history, affecting multiple countries across three regions of Africa," Kaseya said, calling for urgent international action.

Nigeria has identified 44 contacts who are being monitored, while intensifying efforts to find others who may have been exposed.

The WHO said in a statement that infection prevention and control measures were being "ramped up" at the private hospital where the patient sought care.

Nigeria's successful containment of an Ebola outbreak in 2014 has raised confidence that the country can respond effectively to new public health threats.

That epidemic killed more than 11,000 people across West Africa between late 2013 and 2016.

In an interview with AFP, former NCDC director Abdulsalami Nasidi expressed confidence that Nigeria could contain the outbreak as it did 12 years ago, but said success would depend on funding and commitment from the presidency.

"Nigeria was able to rapidly control 2014 Ebola outbreak because they took the right actions at the right time, had good command structures on the ground," Nasidi said.

The response to the latest outbreak could test President Bola Tinubu's re-election bid as Nigeria prepares for presidential polls in January.

In a statement on Wednesday by Tinubu's media adviser, Bayo Onanuga, a presidential task force on Ebola said it was confident Nigeria would be "able to dent this outbreak".

2014 outbreak

In 2014, the first Nigerian case, detected in Lagos, the country's commercial hub of more than 20 million people, raised fears that the highly contagious virus would spread rapidly.

However, a swift response by Nigerian authorities, supported by international organisations, helped bring the epidemic under control within 21 days, resulting in only 19 infections and seven deaths.

"It was so shocking when we got the news yesterday," Anthony Ojogho, a 42-year-old civil servant, told AFP on the streets of Abuja on Wednesday morning.

But he was confident in the authorities' ability to contain the spread of the virus, citing Nigeria's previous experience.

Governments "have always been equal to the task. We contained Ebola, we contained coronavirus," he said.

"If the right steps are being taken, I'm very sure that we're going to contain to a large extent the spread of Ebola virus in Nigeria."