The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has sent a team of specialists to Nigeria as the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo surpasses 10,000 cases and continues to expand across the continent. Nigeria has become the fourth African nation to report a case during the current surge.
Led by the agency's senior expert in epidemic intelligence, the team is tasked with offering technical support and advice to the European Union Delegation based in Abuja. The experts have also offered direct assistance to Nigerian health authorities in key operational areas, including disease surveillance, contact tracing, infection prevention and control, as well as outbreak preparedness and response.
This mission is part of an ongoing sequence of European interventions since the outbreak—the largest ever recorded in Congo—began in May. The European agency previously dispatched a team in May to assist the Africa CDC, conducted a fact-finding mission on airport exit screening in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and deployed specialists to South Sudan in June.
The outbreak has crossed borders from Congo into Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria. Kenya registered its first-ever case of Ebola on October 6. According to the United Nations, eight contacts of confirmed cases in Kenya had shown symptoms and tested positive following lab tests as of Monday, resulting in their immediate transfer to an Ebola treatment centre in Nairobi. The UN reported on Tuesday that a further 20 contacts in Kenya have been cleared and released from quarantine.
