Ebola in Abuja.. Nigeria on high alert amid fears of a virus outbreak

Pate stated that authorities have begun tracing 44 people who had contact with the patient. He said: "We are doing our best to contain this case by tracing all the people who may have come into contact with this woman."

According to Nigerian authorities, symptoms began to appear in the woman on October 7, and she was admitted to a private hospital in Abuja on October 11, where she was later diagnosed with the Ebola virus. It is not yet clear when the woman arrived in Nigeria.

Nigerian authorities did not disclose her nationality. The ministry said in a statement: "Passing through Uganda does not necessarily mean that the infection occurred there; the location of exposure to the virus is still under investigation."

With the registration of this case, Nigeria becomes the latest country to report an Ebola infection, amid the virus outbreak in the region. Kenya had confirmed its first case earlier this month and has since recorded 9 infections.

Uganda had previously recorded Ebola cases but later declared itself free of the virus. The Ugandan Ministry of Health stated that the patient—a Nigerian woman who was on a business trip to the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo—had only passed through Uganda. The ministry confirmed that Uganda "is not currently experiencing any confirmed and active Ebola virus cases."

In a post on the X platform, Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "We are facing a very serious threat," noting that the mortality rate reaches about 50% of cases.

He added: "The outbreak of the 'Bundibugyo' strain of the Ebola virus has become the most geographically widespread in history, affecting several countries spread across 3 regions in Africa."

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control had announced two weeks ago that it was intensifying monitoring and surveillance operations following the discovery of Ebola cases in Kenya, in order to strengthen the country's readiness to face any potential outbreak of the virus.

The center stated that "these efforts focused on early detection, isolation and referral, laboratory diagnosis, infection prevention and control, contact tracing, risk communication, and protecting healthcare workers."

Nigeria established an Ebola task force in June, following the outbreak of the virus in Congo in mid-May.

Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, said when announcing the formation of the task force, "We do not want a repeat of what happened during the previous outbreak, when a person carrying the virus entered the country, and everyone rushed to respond. We have come a long way and have established structures to deal with any potential threat."

The spread of the Ebola virus outside the borders of Congo has exacerbated long-standing concerns among health authorities regarding the speed of transmission of the rare "Bundibugyo" virus, which has infected more than 9,500 people and claimed the lives of more than 4,600 others.

According to the World Health Organization, the current outbreak is the fastest-spreading ever, and is on track to surpass the deadliest wave in history in its toll; the wave that struck West Africa between 2014 and 2016 and resulted in the death of 11,000 people. Nigeria was among the affected countries at the time, where 20 cases were recorded, before the end of the virus outbreak in the country was declared after 3 months.