Nigeria has 53 people under watch after confirming an Ebola case in its capital, and as of Sunday none of them had tested positive or shown symptoms, the country’s disease control agency said.
The patient is a 42-year-old woman who returned to Abuja from Kampala, Uganda, on Oct. 3, according to Premium Times, which reported the details from a briefing by Jide Idris, director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC). Symptoms began about three days later. She was admitted to a private hospital on Oct. 11 and tested positive on three separate samples. Her husband tested negative.
Nigeria is the most populous Black nation on Earth, and Abuja is a hub for travel across West Africa and to Black communities in the United States, Canada, Britain and the Caribbean. The case is the Bundibugyo strain, part of an outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in mid-May and, by NPR’s count, has infected more than 9,000 people and killed more than 4,300 across several countries. Kenya confirmed its first case earlier this month and has since reported nine infections.
Who is being watched
Of the 53 primary contacts, 44 are people from the hospital where she was treated. The other nine are her husband, her driver, her cook, three staff at a second clinic and three members of the team that collected her samples. All are being monitored for 21 days from their last possible exposure.
Health Minister Muhammad Pate said: “We are doing everything possible to contain this case by tracing all the contacts.”
On Sunday, Idris told reporters the agency had approved a payment of ₦100,000 per person per week for quarantined contacts, on top of free lodging and meals at the designated facilities. “Some of them are asking for a stipend to maintain their families,” he said, and contacts had complained that they could not tend to businesses or households while isolated.
The NCDC has also told hospitals to report suspected cases without waiting for laboratory confirmation, and has warned that misinformation could undermine the response. Twelve laboratories have been identified for testing, and an incident action plan is being drafted with partners. Nigeria set up an Ebola task force in June.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has called the outbreak “extremely serious” and the most geographically extensive in history, with a fatality rate near 50%.
Each contact stays under monitoring until 21 days have passed since their last possible exposure.
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