The Federal Government has confirmed a case of the Ebola virus in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, said laboratory testing confirmed the imported case of Ebola virus disease.
Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, Pate said the patient is a woman with a recent travel history to East Africa, particularly Uganda, who returned to Nigeria with symptoms on October 7th, which progressed four days later before tests confirmed the infection.
He said the patient is currently in isolation and receiving medical care, and contact tracing has begun, with 44 contacts already identified, as surveillance strengthens at the country’s entry points.
“The patient, a woman who recently arrived in Nigeria on an international flight from Uganda, was admitted to a private hospital… where she received care for several days before the diagnosis was confirmed,” a government statement said. “She is currently in isolation and receiving medical care.”
Pate explained that the Ministry of Health, the FCT Health Secretariat, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and other partners are working together to contain the infection and prevent further spread.
While urging public and private health facilities to remain on high alert, stressing that health workers must maintain a high index of suspicion for possible cases, he called on Nigerians to remain calm and vigilant.
The minister advised the public to practise good hygiene, watch out for symptoms including fever, weakness, headache and diarrhoea, and cooperate with public health officials.
He maintained that the situation is being managed, with the government pledging timely and transparent updates as efforts continue to contain the virus.
The health minister said the government is drawing on Nigeria’s experience in containing the 2014 Ebola outbreak and the public health mechanisms established over the years, adding that all identified contacts are being traced and monitored.
Backstory
The announcement came following the outbreak of the disease in the DR Congo in May. Since then, the deadly viral haemorrhagic fever has spread to several countries across the continent, including neighbouring Uganda.
Kenya’s health ministry meanwhile reported its ninth Ebola case of the outbreak on Tuesday.
“This Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak has already become the most geographically widespread Ebola outbreak in history, affecting multiple countries across three regions of Africa,” said the director general of Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya.
In several months, the DRC’s Ebola epidemic has become the deadliest in the country’s history, killing 4,381 people out of more than 9,000 confirmed cases, according to the health authorities.
Following the outbreak, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) heightened vigilance, reviewing Nigeria’s preparedness measures.
“While the case was linked to the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), its detection in Kenya underscores the risk of international importation through travel and population movement, including the possibility of importation into Nigeria,” it stated.
“Kindly note, as of October 6, 2026, there is no confirmed case of Ebola disease in Nigeria,” the agency wrote.
Nigeria’s first registered Ebola case was in 2014.
