WHO warns ‘more complex’ Ebola outbreak now present in 3 African countries

Health officials are investigating where Nigeria’s first patient, confirmed this week, was infected.

Kenya Red Cross personnel don their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during a simulation of evacuating the remains of an Ebola victim in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on October 22, 2026 [AFP]

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the Ebola outbreak that emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is growing more “complex”, with cases now present in countries in East and West Africa.

This comes as health authorities investigate where Nigeria’s first case , which was confirmed this week, originated, raising questions about whether the patient crossed paths with Kenya’s first patient at a Ugandan airport.

list 1 of 3 Kenya on high alert amid concern over screening after first Ebola death

list 2 of 3 Kenya confirms four more Ebola cases, bringing total to seven

list 3 of 3 Nigeria’s first Ebola case matches DR Congo strain, health officials say

“We are facing a more complex outbreak landscape,” Mohamed Janabi, regional director for WHO in Africa, told an online media briefing on Thursday.

Nigeria reported its first case of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola on Tuesday, becoming the fourth ⁠African country and the most populous yet to be affected by an outbreak that was announced in DRC in mid-May and has since killed more than 4,000 people there.

Kenya, DRC and Nigeria all have active or recent cases of the Bundibugyo strain, while Uganda had cases earlier in the year but has since been declared Ebola-free.

The Nigeria patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja. Authorities in Uganda said she had travelled to eastern DRC before transiting through Uganda. But the WHO and Africa’s top health agency said on ⁠Thursday they had not received confirmed information that the woman travelled to the DRC.

A Swiss government statement to the Reuters news agency also said the patient is believed to have contracted the disease while travelling in Uganda.

Wessam Mankoula, the head of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said on Thursday that both the first Nigerian case and the first Kenyan case had left Entebbe on October 3, and that a possible encounter between them was under investigation.

Ugandan authorities rejected the suggestion that she was infected in the country. Government spokesman Alan Kasujja told the AFP news agency that it was “preposterous” to link Uganda to the case simply because she had holidayed there.

However, Mankoula said there was no validated information that she had been to DRC, and Jean Kaseya, the Africa CDC director general, said the same. Pavel Ursu, the WHO representative in Nigeria, said the information given to the organisation included no travel outside Uganda.

Patrick Otim, a WHO emergency response manager, said on Thursday the source of her infection was still unknown as health authorities were working to piece together her travel history.

Investigators were looking at which Abuja health facilities she visited between the onset of symptoms and her hospitalisation 48 hours later, he added.

An increase in numbers

Kenya’s Ministry of Health confirmed its first case earlier this month and had reported eight more since. Patrick Amoth, the Health Ministry’s director-general, said officials had traced all 135 contacts of the first case.

Nigeria is now tracing 44 contacts, and Mankoula said more had since been identified but did not give a new number.

The current outbreak is the deadliest in DRC’s history, according to the country’s health authorities. It has killed more than 4,000 people out of more than 9,000 confirmed cases since May.

Neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 confirmed cases, including 15 imported from the DRC, and two deaths, before it was declared Ebola-free in August.

The Africa CDC has warned of an “extremely serious threat”, with the fatality rate in DRC approaching 50 percent.

卫生官员正在调查尼日利亚本周确诊的首例患者是在哪里感染的。

2026年10月22日，在肯尼亚首都内罗毕，肯尼亚红十字会工作人员在模拟撤离埃博拉死者遗体时穿戴个人防护装备（PPE）。[法新社]

世界卫生组织（世卫组织）表示，在刚果民主共和国（刚果（金））爆发的埃博拉疫情正变得越来越“复杂”，目前东非和西非国家都出现了病例。

此前，卫生部门正在调查尼日利亚本周确诊的首例病例的来源，这引发了人们的疑问：该患者是否在乌干达机场与肯尼亚的首例患者有过接触。

肯尼亚首例埃博拉死亡病例后，筛查工作令人担忧，目前处于高度戒备状态（列表1/3）

肯尼亚新增四例埃博拉病例，累计确诊七例（共三份名单中的第二份）。

尼日利亚首例埃博拉病例与刚果民主共和国毒株相符，卫生官员称（列表3/3）

“我们正面临着更加复杂的疫情形势，”世界卫生组织非洲区域主任穆罕默德·贾纳比周四在一次线上媒体简报会上表示。

尼日利亚周二报告了首例邦迪布焦埃博拉病毒病例，成为第四个受疫情影响的非洲国家，也是迄今为止受疫情影响人口最多的国家。疫情于 5 月中旬在刚果民主共和国爆发，至今已造成该国 4000 多人死亡。

肯尼亚、刚果民主共和国和尼日利亚都有现存或近期发生的邦迪布焦毒株病例，而乌干达今年早些时候曾出现过病例，但此后已被宣布为无埃博拉病例国家。

这名尼日利亚患者是出生于乌干达的瑞士外交官的妻子，该外交官常驻阿布贾。乌干达当局称，她曾前往刚果民主共和国东部，之后经乌干达过境。但世界卫生组织和非洲最高卫生机构周四表示，他们尚未收到该女子曾前往刚果民主共和国的确切信息。

瑞士政府向路透社发表的一份声明还表示，据信该患者是在乌干达旅行期间感染了这种疾病。

非洲疾病控制和预防中心（非洲疾控中心）应急准备和响应负责人韦萨姆·曼库拉周四表示，尼日利亚首例病例和肯尼亚首例病例均于 10 月 3 日离开恩德培，目前正在调查他们之间可能存在的接触。

乌干达当局否认她是在该国感染的。政府发言人艾伦·卡苏贾告诉法新社，仅仅因为她曾在乌干达度假就将这起病例与乌干达联系起来是“荒谬的”。

然而，曼库拉表示，没有确凿信息表明她去过刚果民主共和国，非洲疾控中心主任让·卡塞亚也持相同观点。世界卫生组织驻尼日利亚代表帕维尔·乌尔苏表示，世卫组织收到的信息显示，她没有离开过乌干达。

世界卫生组织应急响应经理帕特里克·奥蒂姆周四表示，她的感染源仍然不明，卫生部门正在努力拼凑她的旅行史。

他补充说，调查人员正在调查她在出现症状到48小时后住院期间去过阿布贾的哪些医疗机构。

数量增加

肯尼亚卫生部本月初确认了首例病例，此后又报告了8例。卫生部总干事帕特里克·阿莫斯表示，官员们已追踪到首例病例的全部135名密切接触者。

尼日利亚目前正在追踪 44 名密切接触者，曼库拉表示，此后又发现了更多密切接触者，但没有透露新的数字。

据刚果民主共和国卫生部门称，此次疫情是该国历史上最致命的疫情。自5月以来，确诊病例超过9000例，死亡人数超过4000人。

邻国乌干达在 8 月份宣布无埃博拉疫情之前，曾记录了 20 例确诊病例，其中 15 例是从刚果民主共和国输入的，还有 2 例死亡。

非洲疾控中心警告称，疫情构成“极其严重的威胁”，刚果民主共和国的死亡率已接近 50%。