The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has issued a call for a meeting of all health ministers across the continent on Oct. 28 to confront the five-month-old Ebola outbreak. This meeting “will provide an opportunity for Ministers of Health to assess the situation, strengthen coordination across borders, accelerate support to affected countries and reinforce preparedness throughout the continent.”

Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC, said, “Ebola is crossing borders. Our response must move faster, with stronger coordination, greater solidarity and decisive political leadership. We have the expertise and the capacity on this continent. We must mobilise them together to stop this outbreak and save lives.”

This call for the meeting has come in response to the Oct. 20 confirmation of Nigeria’s first case in over a decade, and Kenya’s first case ever earlier this month. In the Nigerian case, a foreign national woman who lives in Abuja, Nigeria, traveled to eastern Congo and returned to Abuja on Oct. 3. Four days later she was admitted to a local hospital when she began to show symptoms of Ebola infection. She remains in the hospital in isolation. Nigerian health officials have been tracing and monitoring 44 others who may have come into contact with the woman.