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The Ebola case detected in Nigeria is the Bundibugyo strain behind a major DR Congo outbreak, officials said Wednesday, marking the spread of the deadly disease to points across Africa.

The case detected in a woman diplomat in Nigeria—the first there since the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo—raised memories of a widespread outbreak in 2014 that struck several countries in the region.

Nigeria is the fourth African country affected by the outbreak, which this week came to span the continent, with Kenya in the east reporting nine cases since Oct. 6.

The DRC's Ebola epidemic has become the deadliest in the country's history, killing 4,381 people out of more than 9,000 confirmed cases since mid-May, according to the health authorities.

The patient in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, traveled from Uganda to the capital, Abuja, on Oct. 3, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said.

"We did three levels of tests, but all molecular. The strain was Bundibugyo," said Olajumoke Babatunde, director of the public health laboratory service at the NCDC.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also confirmed that it was the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is still neither a vaccine nor a specific treatment.

" The official did not disclose the nationality of the diplomat.

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