European disease control center sends experts to Nigeria while Ebola cases surpass 10,000 in Congo

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) deployed a team of experts to Nigeria this week as Ebola spreads across Africa, with cases reported in Kenya and Nigeria, the European agency announced on Tuesday. With the Ebola outbreak continuing to spread beyond the epicentre in the Democratic Republic of Congo — where it surpassed 10,000 cases — ECDC sent a team led by its senior expert in epidemic intelligence to Nigeria, the fourth African country to report an Ebola case. The ECDC experts are tasked with providing “advice and technical support to the EU Delegation in Abuja” and have offered to the Nigerian authorities to help with disease surveillance, contact tracing, infection prevention and control, as well as preparedness and response. This is not the first time during this outbreak — the biggest that Congo has seen — that the Centre has sent experts to African countries. In May, a team was deployed to support the Africa CDC. The Centre also led a fact-finding mission on exit screening at airports in DRC and Uganda, while experts have also been deployed to South Sudan in June. The outbreak began in Congo in May this year and has spread to Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. Kenya reported its first-ever Ebola case on 6 October. As of Monday, eight contacts of the confirmed cases had developed symptoms and tested positive for Ebola following laboratory testing. They were immediately transferred to the Ebola treatment centre in Nairobi, according to the United Nations. A further 20 contacts were released from quarantine in Kenya, the UN said on Tuesday. The likelihood of infection among Europeans is very low, according to ECDC’s latest threat assessment. For those living or travelling to affected areas in Kenya and Nigeria, the risk is low.