Ebola has now spread to four African countries as Congo cases pass 10,000

The Ebola outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May has spread to Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.

Kenya reported its first-ever Ebola case on 6 October. As of Monday, eight contacts of confirmed cases had developed symptoms, tested positive for Ebola and been transferred to the Ebola treatment centre in Nairobi.

A further 20 contacts were released from quarantine in Kenya on Tuesday.

Cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo have surpassed 10,000.

Against that backdrop, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, or ECDC, sent a team led by its senior expert in epidemic intelligence to Nigeria. Nigeria is the fourth African country to report an Ebola case.

The experts were tasked with providing advice and technical support to the EU Delegation in Abuja. ECDC said it could assist Nigerian authorities with disease surveillance, contact tracing, infection prevention and control, and outbreak preparedness and response.

The Nigeria deployment follows earlier ECDC work during the outbreak. A team was deployed to support the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, known as Africa CDC, in May, and ECDC experts were sent to South Sudan in June. The agency also led a fact-finding mission on exit screening at airports in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

All deployments are coordinated by the EU Health Task Force. ECDC has also produced a practical checklist for national authorities reviewing internal procedures and seeking to strengthen readiness. Its risk-assessment guidelines are intended to help public health authorities after an Ebola disease case is identified during or after a flight.

The agency maintains cooperation with Africa CDC, the European Commission, the World Health Organization, the EU Delegation in Nigeria and the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

In its latest threat assessment, ECDC said the likelihood of infection among Europeans was very low. It assessed the risk for people living in or travelling to affected areas in Kenya and Nigeria as low.