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Nigeria has confirmed its first case of Ebola in the current outbreak, after a woman who recently flew in from Uganda tested positive in the capital, Abuja.
Professor Muhammad Pate, Nigeria's Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, announced the result at a news conference on Tuesday, 20 October 2026 saying laboratory tests confirmed the infection the same day.
Pate called it "a contained case" and said the woman is in isolation and receiving medical care.
Health teams have identified 44 close contacts and are tracing others who may have been exposed.
The virus involved is Bundibugyo, one type of Ebola.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where this outbreak began, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) counted 9,552 confirmed cases and 4,602 deaths as of 18 October.
A positive test in Abuja
The woman arrived in Nigeria on an international flight from Uganda.
The Associated Press reported that her symptoms began on 7 October and that she was admitted to a private hospital in Abuja on 11 October, before the Ebola diagnosis was made.
Pate said she was treated there for several days before the infection was confirmed.
The accounts available so far do not say where she caught the virus, and a flight from Uganda does not on its own show that she was infected there.
CDC data show Uganda had 20 confirmed cases and two deaths earlier this year, with its last confirmed patient released from care on 16 July and no active cases reported as of 18 October.
Her age and current condition were also not given in the reports reviewed.
Forty four people on the list
Contact tracing means finding everyone who was close to a sick person and keeping watch on them for signs of illness.
Pate said the 44 contacts include health workers, patients, caregivers and people who travelled with her, and teams are still looking for others.
He also asked airline passengers who are contacted to give the information requested and follow public health advice.
The private hospital that treated her is receiving immediate support to strengthen infection prevention and control, which means the steps that stop a germ from passing from one patient or worker to another.
Pate asked every public and private health facility in Nigeria to stay alert and to isolate suspected cases quickly.
What the minister told Nigerians
Pate said Ebola spreads through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of a person who is sick or has died of it, and through contaminated materials.
He listed fever, severe weakness, headache, vomiting and diarrhoea as symptoms to watch for.
He said people who think they may have been exposed should report to public health authorities at once, even if they feel well.
