The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the spread of Ebola across multiple African countries has created a more complex public health emergency after Nigeria confirmed its first imported case of the disease.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, raised the alarm on Thursday, saying the arrival of the virus in West Africa had expanded the geographical reach of the outbreak, which has already affected countries in eastern and central Africa.
“We are facing a more complex outbreak landscape. Nigeria has confirmed an imported case of Ebola virus disease,” Janabi said during an online media briefing.
Nigeria announced on Tuesday that a woman, a diplomat with a history of travel to Uganda, had tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which is responsible for a major outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The development makes Nigeria the fourth African country affected by the outbreak, which has spread across the continent, with Kenya reporting nine cases since October 6.
The emergence of the virus in Nigeria has heightened concerns about the possibility of further transmission, given the country’s large population and extensive domestic and international travel connections.
However, Nigeria’s successful containment of an Ebola outbreak in 2014 has provided a basis for confidence in its public health response. The earlier outbreak affected several West African countries and killed more than 11,000 people between late 2013 and 2016.
The current outbreak has been particularly severe in the DRC, where health authorities have reported more than 9,000 confirmed cases and 4,381 deaths since mid-May, making it the deadliest Ebola epidemic in the country’s history.
Efforts to contain the outbreak have also intensified around the search for effective medical interventions against the Bundibugyo strain, for which no licensed vaccine or specific treatment is currently available.
Researchers are conducting a trial of the Ervebo vaccine in eastern Congo to determine whether it can provide protection against the strain. The vaccine is already approved for use against the Zaire strain of Ebola.
The WHO said in August that 70,000 doses of Ervebo had been approved for use in the DRC. Of the doses, 50,000 were earmarked for frontline personnel and healthcare workers, while the remaining 20,000 were allocated to a clinical trial examining the vaccine’s effectiveness against the Bundibugyo strain.
The trial is expected to provide evidence that could help guide future vaccination strategies against the strain responsible for the current outbreak.
The spread of Ebola into Nigeria has renewed memories of the devastating 2014 West African epidemic, when rapid transmission across national borders overwhelmed healthcare systems and exposed weaknesses in regional disease surveillance.
With the outbreak now affecting countries in central, eastern and western Africa, the WHO has warned that the evolving situation requires heightened vigilance and coordinated responses across the continent.
Nigeria’s ability to identify the imported case and respond promptly will be critical to limiting further spread, while developments in the DRC and other affected countries remain central to efforts to contain the outbreak.
 has warned that the spread of Ebola across multiple African countries has created a more complex){kind=link}