No vaccine, specific treatment for Ebola strain in Nigeria — WHO
Written by Rita Okaba on October 22, 2026
Fresh facts emerged yesterday regarding the travel itinerary of the confirmed Ebola virus patient in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, revealing that the index case entered Nigeria aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight earlier this month.
This came on a day an emergency meeting of officials of the health ministry revealed the index case detected in the country carried the Bundibugyo strain of the virus which, according to the World Health Organisation, WHO, has no vaccine or specific treatment.
This is even as the Ugandan government asked Nigeria to provide detailed travel and clinical records of the woman, the index case, insisting she didn’t pick the virus in its territory, since there is no Ebola case in Uganda.
Meanwhile, the two arms of the National Assembly, Senate and House of Representatives, have asked the Federal Government to urgently release money to relevant agencies to confront the disease.
According to the aviation official, the patient landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET333.
The revelation provides critical details for contact-tracing, following an earlier official announcement by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Pate, who confirmed the presence of the virus in the nation’s capital.
Pate had disclosed that the female patient had recently returned to Nigeria on an international flight from Uganda and subsequently spent several days receiving care at a private hospital in Abuja before the infection was formally diagnosed.
She has since been transferred to a designated isolation facility where she is at the moment.
