The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says the absence of an approved vaccine for the current Ebola outbreak is linked to what it describes as the perception of Ebola as an African problem.

The Director-General of Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya, stated this during an interview on Thursday.Kaseya said vaccines would likely have been available if the outbreak were occurring in Western countries.

He explained that the current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare strain of Ebola for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment.

According to him, unlike the Ebola strain responsible for the 2014 to 2016 West African epidemic, which has an approved vaccine known as Ervebo, the Bundibugyo strain has no licensed vaccine.

Kaseya disclosed that Africa CDC had initiated clinical trials for new vaccines, including a candidate vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain manufactured in Egypt.

He described the outbreak as the most geographically widespread in history, affecting three regions of Africa, with the Democratic Republic of Congo alone recording more than 9,500 infections and approximately 4,600 deaths.

Meanwhile, Nigeria confirmed its first case of the outbreak on Tuesday in a woman who arrived from Uganda on October 3.Following the confirmation, health authorities placed 44 contacts of the infected woman under monitoring as part of efforts to prevent further transmission.