10 Years Later: Nigeria's First Ebola Case in a Decade Sparks Cross-Border Origin Dispute

Nigerian health officials confirmed the country's first Ebola case in more than ten years on Friday. The patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat stationed in Abuja. Her infection marks the expansion of the current outbreak into a fourth African nation, intensifying concerns about further transmission.

The Swiss foreign ministry stated that the woman had not traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the epidemic began in mid-May. According to the ministry, she likely contracted the virus while accompanying her husband on a trip to Uganda. This account contradicts earlier claims from Ugandan officials, who said the patient had visited eastern DR Congo. A Ugandan government spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday that the country had no active cases and would announce any new infections publicly.

The discrepancy has complicated efforts to contain the virus. The World Health Organization is continuing its investigation into the source of the Nigerian case. Catherine Smallwood, a WHO Ebola incident manager based in DR Congo, reported during a UN briefing in Geneva that staff had no evidence the patient traveled to the Democratic Republic. She noted that the patient and a known case in Kenya both passed through Uganda's Entebbe airport on 3 October.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is examining whether contact at that airport led to the infection. However, experts are skeptical of the theory without direct proof. Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist on the WHO's Ebola emergency committee, described the airport link as speculative. She argued that random presence at a large hub does not meet standard epidemiological criteria for a confirmed link.

Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria's health minister, said the case is currently contained. He emphasized that contact tracing is ongoing to prevent the virus from spreading into wider communities. The outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo virus, a strain that lacks an approved vaccine or treatment.

Since the outbreak was announced on 15 May, it has infected more than 9,500 people. Nearly half of those infected have died. This makes it the largest and deadliest outbreak in DR Congo's history. It stands as the second largest globally, trailing only the 2014-2016 west Africa epidemic, which infected more than 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000.