Nigeria has recorded no new Ebola cases since a woman arriving from Uganda tested positive last month. On Friday, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said the last of her 62 contacts had been discharged from monitoring. None of them caught the virus.
According to the NCDC, 13 of the 62 contacts developed fever and other symptoms during follow-up. All 13 tested negative. "There has been no transmission from the index case," the agency said. Public health teams had placed all the contacts in quarantine and followed them up.
The patient was a 42-year-old Swiss woman, The Eastleigh Voice reported. She travelled from Uganda to Abuja via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She developed symptoms four days after arriving in Nigeria. Doctors diagnosed her with Bundibugyo virus disease on October 20. Nigerian medical teams stabilised her, and she was evacuated to Switzerland on October 26. On Wednesday, Geneva University Hospitals said she had recovered and left hospital.
Nigeria has not yet declared the outbreak over. Under World Health Organization guidelines, a country must go 42 days in a row without a new confirmed or probable case. For a patient who recovers, the countdown starts the day after a second negative PCR test. The two samples must be collected at least 48 hours apart.
Authorities said the case involved the same Bundibugyo strain driving the latest outbreak in the DRC, Africanews reported. The strain was first detected there in May. It has since infected more than 11,000 people, and almost half of them have died. No specific treatment or vaccine exists for it, but a trial of two candidate vaccines is underway.
Kenya passed its own milestone on Wednesday. The Ministry of Health discharged its last Ebola patient and released the final 11 people from quarantine. Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said all seven patients who tested positive had recovered. All identified contacts have also completed monitoring.
Duale said Thursday, November 12, was day one of Kenya's 42-day countdown. If no new case is reported, Kenya will be declared free of Ebola on December 23. He said active surveillance would continue at all health facilities and points of entry across the country.