The wife of a Swiss diplomat is Nigeria’s most recent Ebola patient, according to Swiss authorities, who are investigating how she got the illness and identifying potential exposure sources.
On October 20, the 42-year-old Abuja resident, who was born in Uganda, tested positive for Ebola. Her case represents the first confirmed infection in Nigeria in over a decade.
The woman and her spouse visited Uganda earlier this month, according to Switzerland’s foreign ministry. Despite being in seclusion at the moment, her husband has not displayed any symptoms.
Before medical professionals discovered the infection, the woman reportedly received treatment at a private clinic in Abuja for roughly a week. She was receiving treatment in isolation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and her condition was getting better.
All 25 employees at the Swiss embassy in Nigeria—eight Swiss citizens and seventeen Nigerian staff members—were in good condition and did not require isolation, according to the Swiss foreign ministry. The WHO and Nigeria’s Ministry of Health were consulted before the decision was made.
Precautionary health measures are in place, and the embassy is still open.
The woman spent roughly two and a half weeks in Uganda before returning to Nigeria on October 3. Investigators haven’t yet determined where she got the infection, though.
In contrast to previous claims made by Ugandan officials, the Swiss government informed Reuters that the patient had not visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DR Congo. According to the WHO, there was insufficient data to pinpoint the infection’s location.
Additionally, health officials are investigating whether the woman had any contact with a Kenyan man who passed away from Ebola on the same day after passing through Uganda’s main airport.
Investigators are investigating the potential that both patients were infected through shared equipment or other types of contact, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Africa CDC. There is no proof of a relationship.
Genomic sequencing is being carried out by Nigeria’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention to ascertain whether the infection is linked to previous instances. The Bundibugyo strain of the virus has been identified by authorities as the cause of the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.