The Ebola patient currently receiving treatment in Abuja is a Swiss woman and the wife of a staff member at Switzerland’s embassy in Nigeria, the Swiss Foreign Ministry has confirmed.
The ministry said on Friday that the woman and her husband had recently travelled together to Uganda, where she is believed to have contracted the virus. Neither of them had visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the epicentre of the current outbreak.
Nigeria announced its first recorded case of Ebola on Tuesday after the woman arrived in Abuja on a flight from Uganda on October 3. Authorities have identified 44 contacts linked to the case.
On Wednesday, Nigerian authorities confirmed that the patient was infected with the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is driving the outbreak in the DRC. There are currently no specific vaccines or treatments for the strain.
According to the Swiss Foreign Ministry, the woman has been hospitalised at a private clinic in Abuja for about a week and is showing symptoms of the disease.
Her husband has been placed in isolation but has not developed any symptoms.
The ministry added that the remaining 25 staff members of the Swiss embassy, comprising eight Swiss nationals and 17 local employees, were doing well.
Following consultations with Nigeria’s Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the embassy staff were advised that they did not need to undergo isolation.
Switzerland is also considering the possible repatriation of the patient to the country, the ministry said.
Nigeria is the fourth African country affected by the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, after the DRC, Uganda and Kenya.
The outbreak began in northeastern DRC in May before spreading to neighbouring Uganda, where 20 confirmed cases, including two deaths, were recorded before the outbreak was officially declared over in August.
According to WHO figures as of October 20, the epidemic has recorded more than 9,700 confirmed cases and 4,690 deaths.