Scientists investigate possible link between Ebola cases in Nigeria and Kenya
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on TimesLIVE
Ebola specialists will investigate in Nigeria how a patient carrying the Bundibugyo variant was infected, Africa CDC director-general Jean Kaseya announced. Sequencing showed the virus detected in the patient and that of Kenya’s first recorded case are closely related, after a possible transit through Entebbe airport on 3 October, according to Kaseya.
A team of scientists specialising in Ebola will travel to Abuja to investigate how the Nigerian patient was infected with the Bundibugyo strain, Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), announced. The patient, who was born in Uganda and is the wife of a Swiss diplomat posted in Abuja, had not travelled to the epicentre of the epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to her travel documents.
The researchers will notably examine a possible link with the first case recorded in Kenya, involving a man who had travelled from the DRC and died. Genome sequencing carried out on Friday showed that the two viruses were closely related. The two patients were at Entebbe airport in Uganda on 3 October, on separate flights around 40 minutes apart, Jean Kaseya said.
This genetic proximity does not, however, prove direct transmission between the two patients. The Abuja patient, whose condition is improving, says she does not remember meeting the man who died in Kenya. Scientists will also study the possibility of indirect contact through another person, while the countries concerned have agreed to co-operate with the investigation, according to the Africa CDC director-general.
The investigation aims to determine whether the virus is circulating silently in other locations and to trace all exposed contacts. The research follows the international mobilisation called for by Jean Kaseya and the convening of a summit by the Africa CDC after the first Nigerian case, on 22 October.
