Nigeria ends 21-day Ebola contact monitoring with no secondary transmission | Ebola News

None of the 62 contacts identified after the first case developed the disease, although 13 contacts reported fever.

Nigerian health authorities say they have completed a 21-day monitoring period for the 62 contacts of a person who contracted the Ebola virus, ⁠⁠with none of them falling ill.

Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case in more than a decade on October 20 in a Swiss woman who had travelled to Uganda and then returned ‌‌to Nigeria.

The patient and her husband were evacuated to Switzerland where she recovered fully and has been discharged from hospital.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said on Friday that none of the 62 contacts identified after the first case have developed the disease, with the ⁠⁠last contact just discharged.

Thirteen ⁠⁠contacts reported fever or other non-specific symptoms during monitoring, but all of them tested negative for the virus, the NCDC said.

⁠The agency added, however, that completing contact monitoring does not by itself mean the outbreak is over.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) protocols, ‌‌a country must complete a full 42-day countdown from the recovery or departure of the last confirmed ‌‌patient ‌‌before an official end-of-outbreak declaration can be made.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, including blood and vomit, or through contact with contaminated materials and surfaces, such as bedding and clothing.

This latest Ebola outbreak was first identified in Ituri in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in May.

Since then, Ebola cases have been reported in eight provinces in the DRC, as well as in Uganda, France, Kenya and most recently, Nigeria.

The NCDC said seven ⁠⁠Ebola alerts across five Nigerian states over the past three weeks were ⁠⁠investigated, but all seven tested negative.

In DRC, the Ebola outbreak is the second-largest on record. It has infected more than 11,000 people and killed more than ‌‌5,000, according to government data.

There are no approved treatments or vaccines to combat the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, responsible for the ongoing outbreak.