The World Health Organisation has confirmed that the female patient presenting with Ebola virus in Nigeria is carrying the Bundibugyo strain. This rare species has a death rate of about 30 per cent to 50 per cent.
“Nigeria has confirmed one imported case of #Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), becoming the fifth country to detect the virus since an outbreak of the disease was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on 15 May 2026,” the WHO said in a statement Tuesday evening.
The WHO said, “A laboratory test confirmed Bundibugyo virus on 20 October.”
The Bundibugyo ebolavirus has no known cure. Scientists first discovered it in the Bundibugyo district of western Uganda in 2007, and it got its name from the region.
The Bundibugyo virus is a zoonotic disease transmitted from animals such as fruit bats, forest antelopes, monkeys, chimpanzees, and gorillas.
Humans can contract Bundibugyo ebolavirus through broken skin exposed to these animals or through contact with infected people.
It is not airborne, but humans can catch it from an infected person’s sweat, semen, urine, saliva and other body fluids.
The Bundibugyo ebolavirus has an incubation period of two to 21 days after the person has been exposed.
Early symptoms resemble malaria, including fever, severe headache, muscle pain, and fatigue. The symptoms can progress to vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, and in very few cases, bleeding.
Nigeria’s health ministry has identified and isolated 44 contacts who have been exposed to the female patient.
The patient’s husband and the healthcare workers who attended to her were among those isolated.
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