A Swiss woman who had been receiving treatment for Ebola in Nigeria was medically evacuated to Switzerland on Monday alongside her husband. Nigerian health authorities confirmed the evacuation, noting that the patient had shown significant improvement and was stable, conscious, and able to communicate before her departure from the capital, Abuja.
Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Pate, who approved the departure, emphasized that the evacuation does not mean the patient is no longer infectious, stating that strict protocols remain in place. The woman’s husband, a Swiss diplomat stationed in Nigeria, has shown no symptoms of the virus. The World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, explained that the evacuation was arranged because the couple are Swiss citizens and the patient had already been stabilized by Nigerian medical teams following the acute phase of her illness.
With the departure of the couple, Nigeria currently has no confirmed Ebola cases, according to Janabi. However, health officials are continuing to monitor 52 individuals who were identified as having been in contact with the patient. Minister Pate urged the public to remain vigilant and confirmed that established containment measures are still in effect.
The patient tested positive for the virus after returning to Abuja from a trip to Uganda. While Nigerian authorities stated on Friday that they had not yet established the exact circumstances of the infection, the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed she had not visited Congo and is believed to have contracted the virus while traveling in Uganda. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the first identified patients in both Nigeria and Kenya had traveled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on October 3. While Uganda had previously reported Ebola cases, the country had later declared itself free of the virus.
The current outbreak has raised significant concerns among international health authorities regarding the rapid transmission of the rare Bundibugyo virus. The World Health Organization has described this as the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record, noting it is on track to surpass the death toll of the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, which resulted in 11,000 deaths.
Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.
