Africa faces ‘complex’ Ebola outbreak after spread to Nigeria, WHO warns

JUST IN: WHO warns Africa faces a 'complex' Ebola outbreak after the virus spread to Nigeria, marking the first case in West Africa and the continent's most populous nation.

Ebola has reached Nigeria for the first time, and the WHO is calling this outbreak complex.

Nigeria confirmed an imported case of the Bundibugyo strain on Tuesday, the same strain driving a major outbreak in Congo. The patient is the wife of a diplomat who traveled from Uganda to Abuja earlier this month. This is the first time this outbreak has crossed from east Africa to the west of the continent, and Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, more than two hundred million people.

Health minister Muhammad Ali Pate says her contacts have been traced since her arrival, and an undisclosed number of high risk individuals are now fully quarantined in a facility. Screening stations are already up at Lagos airport.

The hard fact tonight is this. A virus that was contained to one region of Africa is now in its largest nation, and the next two weeks of contact tracing will decide how far it goes.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.