Nigeria isolates 44 contacts after airport link to Kenyan Ebola death

Nigeria has placed 44 people in quarantine after identifying a possible link between its first Ebola case and a fatal case in Kenya.

The Nigerian patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a diplomat stationed in Abuja. Nigerian health authorities confirmed the diagnosis on Tuesday, marking the country's first case in over ten years. She traveled to Uganda in September and returned to Nigeria earlier this month.

Dr. Wessam Mankoula, who leads emergency preparedness at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated the woman is currently receiving treatment. Investigators are working to determine how she first contracted the virus. The inquiry focuses on whether she interacted with the first Kenyan patient at Entebbe International Airport.

Both patients were at the Ugandan airport on the same day. The first Kenyan patient, who has died, traveled from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Kenya via Uganda. Mankoula said officials are examining if there was "some sort of interaction between the two cases at the airport."

This outbreak began in eastern Congo in May and is the fastest spreading on record. At least 4,600 people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with roughly 9,700 infections confirmed. Uganda reported about 20 cases initially but was declared free of the virus in August. Kenya recorded its first case in early October, followed by eight additional confirmations.

Nigeria is the fourth country in Africa to record a case in this outbreak. It is the first case in West Africa and is located farthest from the epicenter in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids or contaminated items, and people are generally not infectious until symptoms appear.