Nigeria confirmed an Ebola case in its capital, Abuja, on Tuesday after a woman who arrived from Uganda tested positive for the virus, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said in an official statement, and the Associated Press reported from Lagos. The woman began showing symptoms on October 7 and was admitted to a private hospital in Abuja on October 11, where she was later diagnosed with Ebola. She is currently in isolation and receiving medical care, the ministry said.

Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said authorities had begun tracing 44 people identified as contacts of the patient. 'We are doing everything possible to contain this case by tracing all the contacts the individual may have had,' he said, according to AP. The ministry said it is working with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and the FCT Health Services Secretariat, that surveillance has been intensified, that the hospital is receiving support to strengthen infection prevention and control, and that public and private healthcare facilities nationwide have been told to stay on high alert and report suspected cases immediately.

Nigeria is the latest country to report a case as the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak spreads across the region. Kenya confirmed its first case earlier this month and has since recorded nine infections: Kenya's Director General for Health, Dr Patrick Amoth, said on Tuesday that the ninth patient, a 24-year-old man and close family member of the index case, was already in quarantine when he fell ill, that all nine cases belong to one known cluster with no evidence of transmission beyond it, and that 134 of 135 identified contacts — 99.3 percent — have been traced and quarantined.

Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said on X that 'we are facing an extremely serious threat,' with a fatality rate of nearly 50 percent of cases, AP reported. 'This Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak has already become the most geographically extensive in history, affecting several countries spread across three regions of Africa,' he said. AP reported the outbreak, which began in Congo in mid-May, has infected more than 9,000 people and killed more than 4,300, and that the World Health Organization has described it as the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record. Nigeria set up an Ebola task force in June; during the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak, Nigeria recorded 20 cases before the outbreak there was declared over.

Sources: Associated Press (Lagos, 20 October 2026, via NPR/WESA); Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare official statement, 20 October 2026; Kenya Ministry of Health update via Dr Patrick Amoth (People Daily, Capital FM, 20 October 2026).