The woman who tested positive for Ebola in Nigeria is the wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, with Switzerland’s government saying she may have contracted the virus during a trip to Uganda, according to Reuters.
The 42-year-old Ugandan-born woman tested positive on October 20, marking Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola case in more than a decade, according to Nigerian authorities.
In a statement to Reuters on Thursday, Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs disclosed that the woman had spent about a week at a private clinic in Abuja experiencing symptoms before she was diagnosed with the disease.
“She is believed to have contracted the virus whilst travelling to Uganda around two weeks ago,” the ministry said.
The Swiss government added that the woman’s husband, who travelled with her, had been placed in isolation but had not developed any symptoms.
“Her husband is in isolation; he has not shown any symptoms. He was travelling with his wife when she is believed to have contracted Ebola,” the statement said.
However, the exact source of the infection remains unknown as health authorities investigate the woman’s movements and possible exposure to the virus.
Ugandan officials said she had travelled to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo before entering Uganda.
However, the World Health Organisation and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said they had not received verified information confirming that she visited the DRC.
Africa CDC official Wessam Mankoula said Nigerian and Ugandan authorities were exchanging information to establish the woman’s travel history and determine where she might have contracted the disease.
“So far, there is no validated information (that) this case traveled to DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo),” Mankoula told an online press conference on Thursday.
The WHO representative in Nigeria, Pavel Ursu, said information available to the organisation indicated that the woman returned to Abuja on October 3 after spending time in Uganda from September 16.
“The facts which we have received is that the patient returned to Abuja on October 3, being away from September 16 in Uganda,” Ursu said.
Ursu added that the woman remained hospitalised, although her biochemical markers were improving.
Meanwhile, WHO emergency response manager Patrick Otim said investigations were ongoing to determine the source of the infection and identify the health facilities the patient visited after developing symptoms but before her hospital admission.
Nigeria’s confirmed case is linked to an outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which was first reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May.
Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, including those who have died from the disease.
Symptoms may include fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, while severe cases can be fatal.
Health authorities are continuing efforts to reconstruct the patient’s movements and trace people who may have come into contact with her.
