Nigeria’s Ebola virus closely related to Kenya case
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Punch
Genomic analysis of Nigeria’s only confirmed Ebola case shows a close similarity to the virus detected in Kenya, Health Minister Muhammad Pate said. It does not establish a direct epidemiological link, while contact tracing and testing continue, Punch reports.
Genomic analysis of the only confirmed case of Ebola virus disease in Nigeria shows that the virus is closely related to the one identified in Kenya, without establishing a direct epidemiological link between the two infections, Nigerian Minister of Health and Social Welfare Muhammad Pate said on Friday 23 October. Authorities are continuing investigations to determine the possible route of transmission.
Nigeria still has only one confirmed case. People who had been in contact with the patient have been identified and placed in quarantine, while further tests are under way, Muhammad Pate said during a briefing with Jide Idris, director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC). Some results are negative and others are still awaited, according to the minister.
The analysis was carried out with NCDC laboratories and facilities associated with virologist Christian Happi at Redeemer’s University in Osun State. Pate said there was no evidence that the infected person had travelled from Kenya to Nigeria, despite the genetic similarity between the viruses.
The World Health Organisation announced on 20 October an imported case of Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease in the Federal Capital Territory, after the patient travelled from Uganda. Nigerian authorities subsequently confirmed that the Ebola patient had spent two weeks in Uganda and that the outbreak remained contained, according to announcements on 22 and 23 October.
