Nigerian health authorities have placed two individuals in isolation in the country’s northeast region while investigating suspected cases of Ebola disease. The developments follow Nigeria’s declaration of its first Ebola case in more than a decade on October 20.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention announced the investigation in a statement posted on social media on Saturday, confirming that contact identification and laboratory testing are currently under way.
“Both individuals have been isolated, contact identification and listing is ongoing, and laboratory testing is being conducted,” the agency stated, emphasizing that classification as suspected cases does not mean they are confirmed infections.
Nigeria recently became the fifth nation affected by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola after an imported case was reported involving a Swiss woman who traveled to the country from Uganda. She and her husband, a Swiss diplomat, were subsequently evacuated to Switzerland.
The broader regional outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May and has since become the largest in that country’s history, affecting eight of its 26 provinces. The epidemic has generated more than 10,300 confirmed cases and killed over 5,000 people, driven in part by persistent weaknesses in early detection and contact tracing.
Health authorities note that only about 12 percent of confirmed cases in the DRC have been identified among previously known contacts, with many fatalities occurring directly within communities. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged stronger protections for front-line workers on Friday following the deaths of two young Congolese doctors from the virus in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
While there is currently no approved treatment or vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain, vaccine trials remain under way. Since May, cases linked to this strain have been documented in the DRC, Uganda, France, Kenya, and Nigeria.
