Nigeria evacuates Ebola patient and spouse to Switzerland

Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola patient in more than a decade has been evacuated from Abuja to Switzerland with her husband, Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said Monday.

Pate said he approved the evacuation and that the patient was clinically improved, stable and conscious when she departed. He cautioned that she remained infectious and said strict public-health protocols were followed. Her husband, a Swiss diplomat, has remained asymptomatic.

The 42-year-old woman, a Ugandan-born national who lives in Abuja, tested positive on October 20 after returning from a trip to Uganda on October 3. She developed symptoms four days after arriving in Nigeria and received care at two private health facilities before her diagnosis. The Nigerian government previously said it had identified 44 contacts.

The source of her infection has not been established. Swiss authorities said she did not travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo, contradicting some earlier accounts. Health agencies are investigating whether she may have crossed paths at Uganda’s main airport with a Kenyan man who later died from Ebola, but the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said no link had been confirmed.

Pate said containment measures were continuing in Nigeria. The Swiss foreign ministry previously said all 25 employees at its Abuja embassy were healthy and did not need to isolate following consultations with Nigerian health officials and the World Health Organization.