Nigeria is investigating two suspected Ebola cases in its northeast, and both people have been isolated, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), as reported by Al Jazeera. The investigation comes as the Bundibugyo outbreak in DR Congo has killed more than 5,000 people.
The NCDC said the two cases were identified in the northeast and that contact listing and laboratory testing are continuing. The agency also said the cases remain suspected, and confirmation depends on laboratory results, according to the Straits Times.
Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case in more than a decade last week. The patient was a Swiss woman who had travelled from Uganda to Abuja, the Straits Times reported. She and her husband were evacuated to Switzerland on Monday.
Authorities have not said whether the two new suspected cases are linked to that first case, according to the Straits Times.
The DR Congo outbreak was declared in May. Al Jazeera reports that it has killed more than 5,000 people and is the largest in the country’s history, with more than 10,300 confirmed cases in eight of the country’s 26 provinces. That confirmed-case figure is reported by Al Jazeera alone, and no second source is cited for it.
There is no approved treatment or vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain, according to Al Jazeera, and vaccine trials are under way.
Bundibugyo cases have been reported in DR Congo, Uganda, France, Kenya and, most recently, Nigeria since May. Only about 12 percent of confirmed DR Congo cases were among previously known contacts, a figure that signals how difficult tracing has been. On Friday, Africa CDC called for stronger protection of front-line workers after two young Congolese doctors died.
There is a dispute over the status of the two people in northeast Nigeria. Premium Times, in a headline and short excerpt, identifies them as a 34-year-old pilot and his wife and says both tested negative for Ebola. The NCDC, as reported by Al Jazeera and the Straits Times, says both cases are still suspected, are isolated and are awaiting laboratory results. No Nigerian authorities have responded to the Premium Times report of negative tests in the material available.
The gaps are significant. Only a headline and short excerpt from Premium Times were available, so the identity details and the negative-test claim are not confirmed by any other source. No laboratory results have been published for the two suspected cases, and no second source confirms their locations or how they were identified beyond the NCDC statement.
Laboratory results for the two suspected cases are pending, and so is the identification and listing of their contacts. Until those results are released, the cases remain suspected, and officials have not said whether they are connected to Nigeria’s first confirmed case.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.