The confirmed Ebola patient in Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory landed at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on October 3, 2026, aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET333, according to an aviation official who spoke to Vanguard News. The official briefed the newspaper on condition of anonymity, saying she was not authorised to discuss the matter with the media.
The detail, reported by Vanguard News, fills in the travel timeline behind the index case that federal health authorities announced earlier. It also comes as Uganda's government pushes back on the suggestion that the woman contracted the virus on Ugandan soil.
Why it matters
The flight information is central to contact-tracing. Knowing the date, the airline and the flight number allows public health teams to identify passengers and crew who may have been near the patient, and to widen the search beyond the hospital where she was treated.
Nigeria's Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Pate, had already confirmed the virus was present in the capital. According to Vanguard News, Pate said the female patient had returned to the country on an international flight from Uganda and then spent several days receiving care at a private hospital in Abuja before the infection was formally diagnosed. She has since been moved to a designated isolation facility for treatment.
A multi-agency response and 44 contacts identified
The Federal Ministry of Health, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and the FCT Health and Environmental Services Secretariat have begun a joint contact-tracing operation, Vanguard News reports. Authorities have so far identified 44 close contacts. The group includes healthcare workers, other patients at the hospital, caregivers and people linked to her travel route.
The Federal Government has also placed health institutions and port health surveillance units nationwide on high alert, according to the report.
Uganda disputes the origin of the infection
Uganda's government has asked Nigeria to hand over detailed travel and clinical records for the woman, insisting she did not pick up the virus in Uganda because the country has no Ebola cases, Vanguard News reports.
That request puts the two governments at odds over where the infection began — a question with practical consequences, since it shapes which countries trace contacts and how far back investigators look. The records Nigeria supplies, including the patient's movements and medical history, are likely to be scrutinised by both sides.
Vanguard News noted that comments published alongside its report do not reflect the views of the newspaper or its staff.
What to watch: whether Nigerian authorities release further details of the flight manifest and contact-tracing results, and how Uganda's request for the patient's records is answered.
