The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) will send a team of leading Ebola scientists to Nigeria to investigate how the country’s first confirmed case in more than a decade contracted the Bundibugyo strain of the virus.
Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya disclosed this in an interview with Reuters in London, saying the investigation would focus on determining the source of infection in a Ugandan-born woman married to a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja.
According to Kaseya, the patient’s travel documents indicate that she did not visit the outbreak epicentre in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raising questions about where and how she became infected.
He said the investigation was critical to determining whether the virus was spreading undetected in other locations and ensuring that all contacts of infected persons were identified and monitored.
“We have so many unknowns,” Kaseya said, adding that the scientific team would be deployed to Abuja to ensure that the investigation was guided by evidence.
One of the possibilities under investigation is a potential link between the Nigerian patient and the first reported case in Kenya, involving a man who had travelled from the DRC and later died.
Genomic sequencing conducted on Friday showed that the viruses infecting the two patients were closely related. However, Kaseya stressed that the finding did not establish that either patient directly infected the other.
The Nigerian patient had travelled to Uganda for a holiday and passed through Entebbe Airport on October 3. The Kenyan patient was believed to have been at the airport around the same time, with their flights departing approximately 40 minutes apart.
Although they did not depart from the same gate, investigators have not ruled out possible indirect contact through another person. Kaseya said the woman in Abuja, whose condition was reportedly improving, had no recollection of meeting the Kenyan patient.
The investigation team will be led by Congolese virologist Jean-Jacques Muyembe, a co-discoverer of the Ebola virus, who will work with other experts to examine additional genomic sequencing data and establish where the Kenyan patient may have contracted the infection.
Kaseya also said countries involved in the outbreak investigation had agreed to cooperate following disagreements over the likely source of Nigeria’s case.
Ugandan authorities had maintained that the woman travelled to the DRC, while Nigerian officials indicated that she had not visited the outbreak epicentre and may have contracted the virus in Uganda, which had reported no Ebola cases since August.
The Bundibugyo outbreak in the DRC has reportedly resulted in nearly 10,000 cases and more than 4,600 deaths, with infections also reported in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda.
Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person who is experiencing symptoms. The disease can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, and may lead to severe internal and external bleeding.
There is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, making early detection, contact tracing and coordinated public health investigations critical to containing its spread.
(Reuters)
