Nigeria's Ebola Patient Is the Wife of a Swiss Diplomat
Nigeria's Ebola patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, The Guardian reported. Nigeria confirmed the case on 20 October, when a woman who had arrived in Abuja from Uganda tested positive for Ebola. It is the country's first Ebola patient in more than a decade.
Ebola is a serious viral disease. The current outbreak was first announced on 15 May and is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved treatment or vaccine. It has infected more than 9,500 people and has spread to four African countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria. Nearly half of those infected have died.
The question of where the Nigeria patient caught the virus has produced conflicting accounts. The Swiss foreign ministry said she had not travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and that she was believed to have been infected while travelling with her husband in Uganda. Uganda's health ministry said she had travelled to Congo, and authorities in Uganda said she had gone to eastern Congo. WHO Ebola incident manager Catherine Smallwood said WHO staff in Congo had no information showing the Nigeria patient had travelled there.
Uganda has its own history with the outbreak. It reported Ebola cases in May and June, and the World Health Organization declared it Ebola-free in August. Uganda's health ministry has said the country currently has no active Ebola cases.
Both the Nigeria patient and a patient in Kenya travelled from Uganda's Entebbe airport on 3 October. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating whether the two may have come into contact. The World Health Organization said investigations are continuing to establish the likely source of the Nigeria patient's infection.
Nigeria's health minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, said the country's case remains contained and that contact tracing, the work of identifying and following up people who may have been exposed, is continuing.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the outbreak had affected 66 health zones across eight provinces as of 19 October, according to the World Health Organization.
