ABUJA, Nigeria — The health condition of a female diplomat diagnosed with the Ebola virus in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has severely deteriorated into multi-organ failure, public health authorities revealed on Wednesday.
Speaking during an emergency incident management meeting in Abuja on October 21, 2026, Olajumoke Babatunde, Director of Public Health Laboratory Services at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), confirmed that three rounds of molecular diagnostic testing established the infection as the Bundibugyo strain. Both the NCDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized that this particular variant currently has no approved vaccine or specific antiviral treatment.
The patient had traveled to the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)—where a major outbreak has killed thousands—before transiting through Uganda and arriving in Abuja on October 3, 2026. She developed symptoms four days later and was initially treated for malaria at a private clinic in the FCT before health authorities suspected viral hemorrhagic fever and enforced strict isolation protocols.
In response to the clinical deterioration, the NCDC, alongside the FCT Health Services Secretariat and international health partners, has escalated regional surveillance.
Public health teams are actively tracing and monitoring 44 close contacts—comprising healthcare workers, fellow clinic patients, family members, and travel companions—under a mandatory 21-day observation period to curb potential community transmission.
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