The Swiss government says the Ebola patient in Nigeria is the Ugandan-born wife of a Switzerland diplomat who is based in Abuja.
In a statement to Reuters on Thursday, Switzerland’s Federal
Department of Foreign Affairs said the woman was believed to have contracted
the virus during a trip to Uganda.
The department said the woman had been receiving treatment
at a private clinic in Abuja for about a week after developing symptoms.
“She is believed to have contracted the virus whilst
travelling to Uganda around two weeks ago,” the statement reads.
The Swiss government said the woman’s husband, who travelled
with her, was in isolation but had not shown any symptoms.
Nigeria confirmed its first case of Ebola Bundibugyo disease
on Tuesday after laboratory tests detected the virus in a woman who had
recently arrived in the country.
Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centre for
Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said the woman was born in Uganda
and had travelled there before returning to Abuja with her husband on October
3.
Kaseya said health authorities were investigating whether
the woman had also travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), had
contact with anyone from the country, or visited areas outside Kampala, Uganda.
Uganda’s health authorities had earlier claimed the woman
was Nigerian and had travelled to eastern DRC for business before transiting
through Uganda in early October.
Charles Olaro, Uganda’s director-general of health services,
said the woman did not develop symptoms while in the country but became ill
after arriving in Nigeria.
Olaro said travelling through Uganda did not establish that
the woman contracted the virus there, adding that the location of exposure
remains under investigation.
Alan Kasujja, Uganda’s government spokesperson, also told
Reuters on Thursday that the country had no confirmed Ebola cases.
“If we did, as has happened before, we’d be the first to
say,” he said.
Meanwhile, a senior Kenyan health official said authorities
had traced all 135 contacts of the country’s first Ebola case, which was
confirmed on October 6. Eight additional cases have since been reported.
Patrick Amoth, director-general of Kenya’s health ministry,
said the last contact traced was a Ugandan citizen who arrived in Kenya in
early October on the same flight as the index patient but later left by road
through the Namanga border post with Tanzania.
Amoth said the individual took longer to locate because he
had exited Kenya by road.
According to Reuters, the Africa CDC is investigating
whether Kenya’s index patient may have come into contact with the woman being
treated in Nigeria, as both travelled from Uganda’s Entebbe airport on the same
day.
Mankoula, an Africa CDC official, said transmission between
the two travellers was one of the possible scenarios under investigation.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids
of infected people, whether living or dead. Symptoms include fever, vomiting
and diarrhoea, while severe cases may involve internal and external bleeding.
The Bundibugyo is a rare specie of Ebola virus. There is no
approved vaccine or specific treatment for the disease, although supportive
medical care can improve patients’ chances of survival.
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