Ebola Case Count Nears 9,500 as Nations Clash Over Infection Route

Health authorities are debating where a patient in Nigeria contracted Ebola, a dispute that complicates efforts to contain an outbreak that has infected more than 9,500 people. The Swiss foreign ministry stated on Friday that the patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja. The ministry said she traveled with her husband in Uganda and is believed to have contracted the virus there, contradicting earlier reports from Uganda that placed her in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Questions about the infection route remain unresolved. Catherine Smallwood, a World Health Organization Ebola incident manager in DR Congo, told a UN briefing in Geneva that WHO staff had no information indicating the patient traveled to that country. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating whether the patient contacted an Ebola patient in Kenya. Dr Wessam Mankoula, the organization's head of emergency preparedness and response, said both individuals passed through Uganda's Entebbe airport on 3 October.

Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist and member of the WHO's Ebola emergency committee, questioned the airport theory. She called it "very speculative unless there is evidence of sharing the same space in a manner that could explain that," adding that random presence at a large airport is "not a supported epidemiological link by any standard of what we currently know."

The outbreak began in mid-May in DR Congo before spreading to Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria. Uganda reported cases in May and June and was declared Ebola-free in August. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved treatment or vaccine. Since 15 May, the virus has infected more than 9,500 people and killed nearly half of them, making it the largest and deadliest outbreak in DR Congo's history and the second largest globally, behind the 2014-16 west Africa epidemic.

Contact tracing is continuing in Nigeria. Health minister Muhammad Ali Pate said the case remains contained. "We are trying to contain it so it doesn't go out to the communities," he said.

The WHO is comparing the timing of the Nigerian patient's symptoms with the Kenyan case to determine where infection was more likely. Africa CDC is also examining the Entebbe airport link. Melaku Yirga, vice-president for Africa at Prosper Global, said confirmed cases in Kenya and Nigeria require countries to share information across borders without delay and provide resources to frontline health workers.