The Ebola patient confirmed in Nigeria is the wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, with Swiss authorities suspecting that she contracted the virus during a visit to Uganda, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The 42-year-old woman, who was born in Uganda, tested positive for the virus on October 20. Nigerian authorities described the diagnosis as the country’s first confirmed Ebola case in more than a decade.
According to Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the woman spent about a week at a private clinic in Abuja with symptoms before testing positive for the disease.
“She is believed to have contracted the virus whilst travelling to Uganda around two weeks ago,” the ministry said in a statement sent to Reuters.
The woman’s husband, who travelled with her, has been placed in isolation as a precautionary measure but has not developed symptoms, the Swiss government disclosed.
“Her husband is in isolation; he has not shown any symptoms. He was travelling with his wife when she is believed to have contracted Ebola,” the statement said.
Despite the suspected link to Uganda, the circumstances surrounding the infection remain uncertain, with health officials working to establish the patient’s travel history and possible points of exposure.
Ugandan officials reportedly said the woman had travelled to eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) before transiting through Uganda. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said they had not received verified evidence confirming that she visited the DRC.
Wessam Mankoula, an Africa CDC official, said Nigerian and Ugandan authorities were collaborating to reconstruct the patient’s movements and determine the source of the infection.
“So far, there is no validated information (that) this case traveled to DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo),” Mankoula said during an online press conference on Thursday.
WHO representative in Nigeria, Pavel Ursu, said the information available to the organisation indicated that the patient returned to Abuja on October 3 after travelling to Uganda from September 16.
“The facts which we have received is that the patient returned to Abuja on October 3, being away from September 16 in Uganda,” Ursu said.
He added that the woman was still receiving hospital treatment and that her biochemical markers were improving.
WHO emergency response manager Patrick Otim said investigators were also trying to establish which medical facilities the patient visited after developing symptoms and before her eventual hospitalisation.
The case is associated with an outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which was first reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May.
Ebola is a potentially fatal viral disease transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, including those who have died from the infection. Common symptoms include fever, vomiting and diarrhoea.
Health authorities are continuing contact-tracing efforts and investigating the patient’s movements to identify people who may have been exposed and limit the risk of further infections.
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