Switzerland’s foreign ministry on Friday confirmed that the female Ebola patient in Nigeria is married to a Swiss diplomat. The director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control said on Thursday that the 42-year-old woman was born in Uganda.
The couple had been in Uganda since late September but returned to Nigeria earlier this month, when the woman began manifesting symptoms of the deadly virus. She was diagnosed with Ebola on October 20.
The woman who arrived in Nigeria on October 3 developed symptoms four days after landing in the nation’s capital.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Africa CDC are working to establish the location of exposure, particularly whether she had contact with a Kenya-bound traveller at the airport.
The Kenyan man was carrying the Ebola virus. He died days after arriving in Nairobi. His travel history showed he had been to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus killed over 4,500 people.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has confirmed the woman to be a carrier of the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, which has no known cure or vaccine.
NCDC has placed her husband, two domestic staff and 43 other people in isolation since the virus was confirmed. The 43 people largely comprised healthcare workers who tended to the patient at Nizamiye Hospital in Abuja.
Her husband has not developed any symptoms, the Swiss government said.
“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,” Reuters cited the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs as saying.
The Swiss foreign ministry also said it decided not to isolate 25 staff at its embassy in Nigeria after consulting with the World Health Organisation and Nigeria’s health ministry.
Of the 25 staff, eight are Swiss, and 17 are Nigerians.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Festus Keyamo has placed 46 isolated persons on a no-fly list for three weeks, the incubation period for the virus.
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