Nigerian and Kenyan Ebola patients may have crossed paths at Entebbe airport, health officials say

On 3 October, two people infected with Ebola, though neither was yet known to be, moved through the same airport in Uganda. One was a 42-year-old woman bound for Nigeria. The other was a man heading to Kenya. Health officials are now trying to learn whether their paths touched at Entebbe International Airport, and so far they cannot say.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) raised the question on Thursday. Investigators are looking at whether the two could have been exposed through shared equipment or some other contact. Dr Wessam Mankoula, the agency's head of emergency preparedness and response, called an interaction at the airport one of the possible scenarios, but stressed that no link has been established. Officials have not determined whether the two met, used the same facilities or had any other contact. They are also checking whether the two infections might share a common source.

The Nigerian patient is a Ugandan-born woman who lives in Abuja. It is Nigeria's first Ebola case in more than a decade. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), she is in isolation and showing signs of improvement. Switzerland's foreign ministry told Reuters that she is married to a Swiss diplomat based in Nigeria. He travelled with her to Uganda and is also isolated, though he has developed no symptoms. She spent about two and a half weeks in Uganda before flying home on 3 October, with a two-hour stopover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. Symptoms began four days after she reached Abuja. She sought care at two private health facilities and tested positive on 20 October.

The Kenyan man travelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo through Uganda and arrived in Nairobi on 3 October. He later died, which made him Kenya's first recorded death in the current outbreak. Kenya has confirmed nine infections in total.

How the Nigerian woman became infected remains unknown. Dr Patrick Otim, a WHO emergency response official, said her travel history is still being pieced together. Investigators have had few chances to interview her while she is in hospital, which has made a full account of her movements hard to obtain. Ugandan officials earlier said she had gone to eastern DR Congo on business, where the outbreak began. But the WHO, Africa CDC and Nigeria's health ministry say they have received no verified information that she visited. Uganda says it has no confirmed active Ebola cases and argues that her passage through the country does not mean she caught the virus there.

Nigeria's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is carrying out genomic sequencing, which could show whether her infection is related to other cases. Dr Pavel Ursu, the WHO's representative in Nigeria, said the work is a high priority and that investigators are reconstructing her full travel and exposure history. He described her condition as stable and her clinical care as of a high standard.

Contact tracing in Nigeria has widened beyond the 44 contacts first reported. Mankoula said most of the additional people are health workers at the facilities where she was treated, along with a few family members. Authorities are trying to identify and quarantine those at high risk. He declined to give an updated number before the government releases its own findings.

In Kenya, the first group placed in quarantine will begin going home on Sunday after 21 days of monitoring without symptoms. Health Director-General Dr Patrick Amoth said all nine confirmed infections trace back to the first patient, with no sign of wider community transmission. The other eight patients remain in isolation and are responding well to treatment. "We are not out of the woods," he warned, while urging the public to stay vigilant without panicking.

The episode has sharpened concern about people moving across borders, especially between DR Congo and Uganda, where thousands cross daily for trade, work and family visits. Otim said the long, porous border makes it hard to screen everyone, since many use unofficial crossings. Dr Mohamed Janabi, the WHO's regional director for Africa, called for regional vigilance, stronger surveillance and protection for frontline health workers.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person, or through contaminated objects, not through the air. People are not considered infectious before symptoms appear. What to watch next: the sequencing results from Nigeria, the government's updated contact numbers, and Kenya's quarantine releases.