Africa CDC convenes Ebola summit after first case in Nigeria

Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), invited African health ministers to an extraordinary virtual meeting on 28 October to coordinate the response to the spread of Ebola, after the first case was confirmed in Nigeria. He said the meeting should “strengthen our collective response”, according to the Ghanaian Times, citing the AP news agency.

Nigeria announced on Tuesday that the case had been detected in a foreign national who arrived in the country on 5 October after travelling through Uganda. Nigerian authorities are monitoring 44 people who had been in contact with the patient, mainly health workers and the patient’s wife, a Swiss national. The patient was initially treated for malaria symptoms before doctors suspected Ebola, said Odianosen Ehiakhamen, deputy director of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The outbreak, detected in May in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has infected more than 9,500 people and caused a death rate of nearly 50%, according to the World Health Organization. It is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which no vaccine or treatment has been approved. The WHO has called on countries in the region to maintain a high level of preparedness, while Kenya has reported nine cases and France has also recorded an infection.

The meeting announced by Jean Kaseya follows his call for international mobilisation on 20 October, and his statements on 22 October about the virus circulating in Uganda. It also follows the publication on the first Ebola case in Nigeria linked to a stay in Uganda and the call for international assistance from the Africa CDC.