JOHANNESBURG, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Health authorities in Nigeria are investigating two suspected Ebola cases in the country’s northeast region, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday.
The two individuals have been isolated while officials carry out contact identification, listing and laboratory testing, authorities said in a post on X.
The cases remain suspected and confirmation is subject to laboratory results, the post added.
Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case in more than a decade last week in a Swiss woman who had travelled to Uganda and then returned to the capital Abuja in central Nigeria. She and her husband were evacuated to Switzerland on Monday.
The two additional cases, if confirmed, could mean that the disease has spread within Nigeria, which would be a major public health concern. Authorities did not say whether they were believed to be linked to the first case.
The centre of Africa’s Ebola outbreak is in Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 5,000 people have died since it was declared in May. Kenya and Uganda have also reported cases.
There are no approved treatments or vaccines to combat the rare Bundibugyo species, which is behind the Congo outbreak.
(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru and Nellie Peyton in Johannesburg; Editing by Jan Harvey- and Peter Graff)
