Add StudioX as a preferred source on GoogleNigerian health authorities are investigating two suspected cases of Ebola in the country’s northeast, according to Al Jazeera. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) announced the cases on Saturday in a statement posted on X.
The announcement follows Nigeria’s declaration on October 20 of its first Ebola case in more than a decade.
Isolation, tracing and testing
The NCDC said both individuals have been isolated. Officials are identifying and listing their contacts, and laboratory testing is under way.
The agency stressed that a suspected case is not the same as a confirmed one. Confirmation depends on the laboratory results.
How Nigeria came to be affected
Last week, Nigeria became the fifth country affected by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola after an imported case was reported. A Swiss woman who had travelled to Nigeria from Uganda tested positive for the virus. She and her husband, a Swiss diplomat, were evacuated to Switzerland on Monday.
Since May, Bundibugyo cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, France, Kenya and, most recently, Nigeria.
A record outbreak in the DRC
The current outbreak emerged in the DRC in May. Al Jazeera reports that the Bundibugyo strain has killed more than 5,000 people there since then. It is the largest outbreak in the country’s history, with more than 10,300 confirmed cases across eight of the DRC’s 26 provinces.
There is currently no approved treatment or vaccine for this strain of Ebola, although vaccine trials are under way.
On Friday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) called for stronger protection for front-line workers. Two young Congolese doctors died of Ebola earlier this week in the DRC’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
Gaps in detection and contact tracing
Health authorities say persistent weaknesses in early detection and contact tracing are among the main obstacles to stopping transmission in the DRC. Only about 12 per cent of confirmed cases there have been found among people already known as contacts of earlier cases. Authorities also said many deaths are occurring in communities.
The results of the laboratory tests on the two suspected cases in northeast Nigeria will determine whether the country’s outbreak grows beyond the single imported case reported earlier.
Source: Al Jazeera
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