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The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and Ugandan health authorities have offered differing accounts of the background and travel history of Nigeria’s confirmed Ebola patient, as investigations continue to establish where she contracted the virus.
Africa CDC Director-General, Jean Kaseya, said the woman was born in Uganda, travelled there and spent several days before her husband joined her. The couple subsequently returned to Abuja on October 3, 2026.
Speaking on a television programme, Kaseya said health authorities in Nigeria, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were collaborating to determine the source of the infection.
He, however, stressed that the patient’s presence in Uganda did not establish that she contracted the virus there.
“What we know is that the lady came from Uganda, but what we don’t know is whether it is a transmission from Uganda, Kampala, or a transmission that came from another place,” he said.
Kaseya appealed to the patient to provide a detailed account of her movements and possible contacts before arriving in Nigeria, saying the information would help investigators establish the source of the infection and prevent diplomatic tensions among African countries.
However, Uganda’s Ministry of Health presented a different account, describing the woman as Nigerian and saying she had travelled to eastern DRC for business before transiting through Uganda in early October.
Uganda’s Director-General of Health Services, Charles Olaro, said the woman did not develop symptoms while in the country but became ill after arriving in Nigeria.
The Ugandan government also maintained that it had no confirmed active Ebola cases at the time of its statement, insisting that transit through its territory was insufficient evidence that the infection originated there.
“Travel through Uganda does not establish that infection occurred here. The location of exposure remains under investigation,” Olaro said.
Nigeria confirmed its first case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease on October 20, following laboratory tests on a woman who had recently arrived in the country.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, said the patient had received treatment at a private hospital in the Federal Capital Territory before the infection was confirmed.
On October 21, the Director of Public Health Laboratory Services at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Olajumoke Babatunde, disclosed that the patient was a diplomat whose condition had deteriorated into multi-organ failure.
The conflicting accounts have left the location of the patient’s exposure unresolved, with investigators examining her travel history, movements and possible contact with infected persons.
Kaseya said authorities needed to establish whether the woman had travelled to the DRC, interacted with anyone from the country or visited locations outside Kampala during her stay in Uganda.
He also warned African leaders against politicising the outbreak or allowing disagreements over the infection’s origin to undermine regional cooperation.
“I know politics in Africa… I’m familiar with the politics in West Africa… my plea is clear to all leaders: we cannot play politics with this outbreak; we cannot point fingers; we cannot play isolation; we all need to come together to save our continent,” he said.
