Uganda condemns Nigeria's first Ebola case, urges regional health measures

Nigeria’s health ministry confirmed on Tuesday that a 34‑year‑old trader from Lagos tested positive for Ebola virus disease, marking the country’s first case in the ongoing outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in August 2022. The patient was admitted to a specialised isolation unit at Lagos University Teaching Hospital after returning from a business trip to Kinshasa, where the virus has claimed more than 70 lives. Officials said the individual is stable and receiving experimental monoclonal antibody treatment.

The confirmation comes as the outbreak, now in its second year, has spread to three neighbouring states and prompted the World Health Organization to declare a public‑health emergency of international concern in early 2023. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has not recorded a case since the 2014 West Africa epidemic, and its health system is still rebuilding from that crisis. The new infection raises fears of wider community transmission in a densely populated city where informal markets and cross‑border trade are common, and it tests the country’s surveillance and contact‑tracing capacity that was praised during the 2014 response.

Uganda’s Ministry of Health issued a sharp statement on Wednesday, condemning what it called “irresponsible cross‑border movement” that jeopardised regional containment efforts. Kampala reminded Nigeria of the 2022 bilateral health‑security agreement that obliges both states to share real‑time data and enforce quarantine for travelers from affected zones. Ugandan officials also warned that any lapse could reignite the Ebola flare‑up that claimed 55 lives in the country last year, and they called for an urgent meeting of the East African Community’s disease‑control task force.

The Nigerian government has sealed the patient’s contacts, testing over 150 individuals and placing 30 of them under home quarantine. The ministry said it will deploy rapid‑response teams to Lagos and neighboring states, and it has requested additional vaccine doses from the global stockpile. International partners, including the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, are sending experts to assist with containment. Health workers say the next week will be critical to prevent the virus from gaining a foothold in Nigeria’s urban centres, and regional leaders are urging swift, coordinated action to keep the outbreak from spilling over into other densely populated African markets.