Africa CDC probes potential Ebola link at Ugandan airport

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Thursday that it is investigating whether the first Ebola patients in Nigeria and Kenya came into contact at a Ugandan airport. Dr. Wessam Mankoula, who leads emergency preparedness and response at the agency, said the team is looking into whether there was some sort of interaction between the two cases at the facility.

Nigeria reported its first Ebola case in more than a decade on Tuesday. The patient is a Ugandan-born woman who is the wife of a diplomat posted in Abuja. She vacationed in Uganda in September and returned to Nigeria earlier this month. Mankoula confirmed the woman is currently receiving treatment. Nigerian health authorities placed 44 close contacts in quarantine while investigators work to determine how she was initially exposed.

The case is notable for its location. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the fourth nation on the continent to record an Ebola case in the current outbreak. It is the first country in West Africa to report a case and is the farthest from the epicenter in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The outbreak began in eastern Congo in May. It has become the fastest spreading on record, with at least 4,600 deaths and roughly 9,700 infections reported in Congo. Neighboring Uganda initially reported about 20 cases but was declared free of the virus in August.

Kenya recorded its first case in early October, and eight more have been confirmed since. The first Kenyan patient, who has died, traveled from Congo to Kenya via Uganda. Both that patient and the Nigerian case were at Entebbe International Airport on the same day, which prompted the current inquiry.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or through contaminated items. The virus causes severe fever and can be fatal. People are generally not considered infectious until symptoms appear.