Health authorities in Uganda are investigating possible links between Ebola cases in Kenya and Nigeria after the first confirmed patients in both countries reportedly travelled through Entebbe International Airport on the same day.
The development has raised concerns about possible exposure at the airport, although officials have not established whether the two patients met or whether transmission occurred there.
According to a report by Deutsche Welle (DW), the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said the patients travelled through Entebbe International Airport on October 3.
Uganda has maintained that it has no confirmed active Ebola cases, despite its emergence as a focus of investigations into infections detected in the two other African countries.
Nigeria recently confirmed an imported Ebola case in Abuja involving a woman who had travelled to East Africa, including Uganda.
Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said the woman developed symptoms on October 7 and visited a private health facility on October 11, after which laboratory tests confirmed the infection.
The patient was isolated for treatment and reported to be in stable condition.
Nigerian authorities identified 44 contacts, including healthcare workers, caregivers, other patients and people who might have encountered her during her travels.
However, conflicting accounts of the woman’s travel history have complicated efforts to establish where she contracted the virus.
Uganda’s Health Ministry said preliminary findings indicated that the woman had travelled to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) for business before passing through Uganda and returning to Nigeria.
Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, however, disputed the claim, telling Reuters that the woman and her husband had not travelled to DR Congo.
The woman was identified by Swiss authorities as a Swiss national of Ugandan origin and the wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja.
The Swiss government reportedly said it believed she contracted Ebola while travelling with her husband in Uganda, although the assessment had not been independently confirmed.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Africa CDC also said they had not received confirmed information establishing that the woman had travelled to DR Congo.
Uganda has said that passing through the country does not establish that the infection occurred there, adding that the location of exposure remains under investigation.
Meanwhile, Kenyan authorities are investigating a separate chain of infections linked to the country’s first confirmed Ebola patient, who died in Nairobi on October 5.
The patient had travelled from DR Congo through Uganda before reaching Kenya.
Authorities subsequently reported additional infections linked to the initial case.
Kenya’s investigation has also been complicated by the search for a Ugandan national identified as a contact of the deceased patient.
Kenya’s Director-General for Health, Patrick Amoth, told the country’s Daily Nation newspaper that officials knew the man’s name, passport number and phone details but had been unable to reach him.
The newspaper reported that the man was using a South Sudanese telephone number, making it more difficult to establish his whereabouts.
However, officials have not established that the missing contact is infected.
Ebola symptoms typically develop between two and 21 days after infection. According to the WHO, infected people are not considered infectious until symptoms appear.
The latest developments have highlighted the difficulties health authorities face in tracing potential exposures across countries with extensive cross-border travel and trade.
Uganda shares a lengthy border with DR Congo, where Ebola outbreaks have repeatedly challenged public health authorities.
Uganda says it is strengthening screening and public health controls at entry points, while Nigeria has intensified contact tracing and infection-prevention measures.
In Abuja, the confirmed case has raised public concern about the possibility of another outbreak and the capacity of the country’s healthcare system to respond.
Africa CDC is expected to convene an extraordinary virtual meeting of national health officials on October 28 as authorities continue efforts to contain the outbreak.
Investigators are yet to establish whether the Kenyan and Nigerian patients crossed paths at Entebbe International Airport on October 3 or where the Nigerian patient contracted the virus.
While Uganda’s position along regional travel routes has made it central to the investigations, officials have cautioned that the available evidence does not establish an undetected outbreak in the country.
