The nationality of the woman who tested positive for Ebola virus disease in Nigeria has been disclosed.
Switzerland authorities have confirmed that the patient is a Swiss national and the wife of a staff member at its embassy in Abuja.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry disclosed this in a statement on Friday, October 23.
According to the ministry, the patient, a woman and her husband recently travelled together to Uganda, where she is believed to have contracted the virus.
However, Swiss authorities said neither of them had visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is at the centre of the current outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.
The ministry said the woman was experiencing symptoms and had been hospitalised at a private clinic in Abuja for approximately one week.
“The Swiss woman, who is symptomatic, has been hospitalised for about a week at a private clinic in Abuja,” the statement said.
It added that the infection might have occurred during the couple’s trip to Uganda approximately two weeks before the Swiss authorities issued the statement.
“The infection may have occurred during a trip to Uganda approximately two weeks ago,” the ministry stated.
The disclosure comes days after the Nigerian government confirmed the country’s first recorded case of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus disease, raising concerns about the possibility of further transmission.
Nigeria announced on Tuesday that a woman who had travelled from Uganda to Abuja tested positive for the disease. Subsequent laboratory investigations confirmed that she was infected with the Bundibugyo strain, which is associated with the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) confirmed the strain following laboratory tests conducted on the patient.
Olajumoke Babatunde, Director of Public Health Laboratory Services at the NCDC, disclosed during an emergency meeting of health authorities in Abuja on Wednesday, October 21, that the laboratory had conducted multiple tests before arriving at the result.
“We did three levels of tests, but all molecular. The strain was Bundibugyo,” Babatunde said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) also confirmed the strain and noted that there was no approved vaccine or specific treatment available for the Bundibugyo strain at the time of the report.
Before Switzerland disclosed the patient’s nationality, Nigerian health officials had identified her as a diplomat but had not publicly released further details about her identity.
An aviation official had earlier disclosed that the woman arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on October 3 aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET333 from Uganda.
The patient’s travel history has become an important part of the investigation into how the infection occurred and whether other people may have been exposed to the virus.
However, the circumstances surrounding where she contracted the disease remain under investigation.
Uganda’s Ministry of Health had previously requested detailed travel and clinical records from Nigerian authorities to help establish the source of the infection and determine whether additional contact-tracing measures were necessary.
Ugandan health officials said preliminary information indicated that the woman had travelled to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo for business before transiting through Uganda in early October.
According to a statement issued by Uganda’s Director-General of Health Services, Professor Charles Olaro, the woman reportedly showed no symptoms while in Uganda but developed symptoms after arriving in Nigeria.
“The location of exposure remains under investigation,” the statement said.
Uganda also said it had yet to receive detailed information from Nigeria about the woman’s travel itinerary and clinical history, which it considered necessary to guide further investigations.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry’s latest statement, however, said neither the patient nor her husband had travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Swiss authorities also provided an update on the woman’s husband, who is a member of staff at the country’s embassy in Abuja.
According to the ministry, he had been placed in isolation as a precautionary measure but had not developed any symptoms of the disease.
“Her husband is in isolation; he has shown no symptoms. He accompanied his wife on the trip, during which she is believed to have contracted the Ebola virus,” the statement said.
The ministry added that the other 25 members of staff at the Swiss embassy, comprising eight Swiss nationals and 17 local employees, were also in good health.
It said the embassy personnel did not need to undergo isolation after consultations with Nigeria’s health ministry and the World Health Organisation.
The Swiss government is also considering the possibility of transferring the patient to Switzerland for further medical care.
According to the ministry, Bern is considering the “potential repatriation of the patient” as it monitors developments surrounding her condition.
Earlier reports from Nigerian health officials indicated that the patient’s condition had deteriorated significantly, with an official at an emergency meeting disclosing that she had developed multi-organ failure.
The Nigerian government has since intensified efforts to prevent the virus from spreading beyond the confirmed case.
Health authorities have identified 44 contacts linked to the patient, including healthcare workers, fellow patients, caregivers and individuals connected to her travel history.
The contacts are being monitored as part of ongoing efforts to identify possible secondary infections and contain the disease.
The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the NCDC and the FCT Health Services Secretariat are coordinating the response, while health facilities and port health surveillance units across the country have been placed on high alert.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, previously said Nigeria was working with Uganda to manage the situation and prevent further transmission.
Speaking with journalists after a meeting at the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, Pate said the government was concentrating on contact tracing and containment measures.
“All I can tell you is that we are collaborating with our sister African nation of Uganda. What is important is that we have found this one case. We are doing contact tracing, and we are putting containment measures to ensure that it doesn’t go into our population,” the minister said.
The Bundibugyo strain is a type of Ebola virus first identified during an outbreak in Uganda in 2007. The disease can cause severe illness and death, with transmission occurring through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person who is showing symptoms, as well as contaminated materials.
Symptoms may include fever, severe weakness, headache, muscle pain and sore throat, followed in some cases by vomiting, diarrhoea and other serious complications.
The incubation period generally ranges from two to 21 days, and infected individuals typically become capable of transmitting the virus after symptoms develop.
Nigeria previously experienced an Ebola outbreak in 2014 after an infected traveller arrived in Lagos from Liberia. The country successfully contained that outbreak.
