Switzerland says Nigeria’s Ebola patient is a Swiss diplomat’s Ugandan-born wife, believed infected in Uganda, and did not travel to the DRC.
Switzerland says Nigeria’s Ebola patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, and that she is believed to have contracted the virus while travelling in Uganda.
In an emailed statement on Thursday, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said she had been in a private clinic in Abuja for around a week with symptoms.
It said she was “believed to have contracted the virus whilst travelling to Uganda” around two weeks earlier. Her husband travelled with her, is in isolation and has shown no symptoms, the department said.
On Friday, the department said: “She and her husband did not travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” That contradicts Uganda’s account, and the department described her as a Swiss national.
What Switzerland says about the Nigeria Ebola patient
Nigeria confirmed its first case of Bundibugyo virus disease on Tuesday after laboratory tests detected the virus in a woman who had recently arrived in the country. Health Minister Mohammed Ali Pate said her symptoms began on 7 October and she sought care at a private hospital in Abuja on 11 October. Infection was confirmed on 20 October.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) representative to Nigeria, Pavel Ursu, said she was in Uganda from 16 September and returned to Abuja on 3 October. Africa CDC director general Jean Kaseya said she was Ugandan-born and arrived with her husband after a two-week holiday in Uganda.
Kaseya said investigators were checking whether she had travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), had contact with anyone from there, or visited areas outside Kampala. On Thursday, WHO and Africa CDC said they had not received confirmed information that she travelled to the DRC.
Uganda disputes Nigeria Ebola patient account
Uganda’s health ministry said earlier that the woman was a Nigerian who travelled to eastern DRC for business and transited through Uganda in early October. Charles Olaro, the ministry’s director-general of health services, said she showed no symptoms in Uganda. He said travel through Uganda does not establish that she was infected there.
Uganda’s government spokesperson, Alan Kasujja, said Uganda had no confirmed Ebola cases. “If we did, as has happened before, we’d be the first to say,” he said. Uganda reported 20 cases in May and June, mostly imported from the DRC, and WHO declared it Ebola-free in August.
Open questions on the Nigeria Ebola patient
Africa CDC is investigating whether Kenya’s first Ebola patient came into contact with the woman. Both travelled from Entebbe airport in Uganda on the same day. Africa CDC official Mankoula said transmission between the two travellers is one of the scenarios being examined. It has not been established.
Kenya’s first case was confirmed on 6 October, and eight more have since been reported. Patrick Amoth, director-general of Kenya’s health ministry, said authorities have traced all 135 contacts of that case. The last was a Ugandan citizen who arrived on the same flight as the index patient and left by road through the Namanga border post with Tanzania.
Africa CDC is also trying to establish which health facilities the woman visited in Abuja between the onset of symptoms and her admission about 48 hours later.
Her condition is also unclear. An official at an emergency meeting on Wednesday said she was a diplomat whose condition had deteriorated into multi-organ failure. Ursu said on Thursday that she remained hospitalised and her biochemical markers were improving. The two accounts have not been reconciled.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, living or dead. Symptoms include fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, and severe cases may involve internal and external bleeding. There is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for Bundibugyo virus, although supportive care can improve survival. Africa CDC says the outbreak has killed about 4,700 people.
