By Oct. 24, Nigeria had no symptomatic or positive contacts among 53 people, while its confirmed Ebola patient was improving in isolation, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced one imported case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease on Oct. 20. NCDC identified the patient as a 42-year-old woman who reached Abuja on Oct. 3, traveling from Uganda by way of Addis Ababa. She developed symptoms four days later, on Oct. 7. NCDC said she sought treatment at two private facilities on Oct. 10 and 11 before the National Reference Laboratory confirmed the infection on Oct. 20.
WHO’s Oct. 20 announcement listed 44 contacts, compared with NCDC’s count of 53 four days later. WHO said Nigeria was the fifth country to detect the disease since the current outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on May 15, 2026.
WHO said authorities had yet to establish where the patient acquired the infection. Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation said genomic analysis found the Nigerian virus related to one detected in Kenya’s index case. The ministry said further investigation was needed to determine whether the cases were epidemiologically linked.
NCDC said health workers’ vigilance triggered an alert in its event-based surveillance network. Dr. Jide Idris, the agency’s director-general, said in an Oct. 25 statement, “Ebola is a serious disease, and we are treating this situation with the urgency it deserves.” NCDC said it was strengthening infection-control measures.
Festus Adedayo criticized the authorities as complacent in an Oct. 25 opinion essay for Premium Times. He cited Samuel Johnson’s History of the Yorubas, whose 1921 edition describes a respiratory illness called Pehe and says it killed thousands, including King MAJOTU. The passage does not identify a modern disease or establish a link to the current Ebola case.
WHO declared Nigeria’s 2014 outbreak over after the final patient left hospital and 42 days elapsed without another case. NCDC’s Oct. 25 statement said contact tracing would continue for 21 days from each person’s latest possible exposure.
