The Swiss government has said Nigeria’s Ebola patient is believed to have contracted the virus during a trip to Uganda, as health authorities continue investigating the source of the infection.
In a statement to Reuters on Thursday, Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs identified the patient as the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja.
The department said the woman had been receiving treatment at a private clinic in Abuja for about a week after developing symptoms.
“She is believed to have contracted the virus whilst travelling to Uganda around two weeks ago,” the statement said.
The Swiss government added that the woman’s husband, who travelled with her, was in isolation but had not developed symptoms.
Nigeria confirmed its first case of Ebola Bundibugyo disease on Tuesday after laboratory tests detected the virus in a woman who had recently arrived in the country.
Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said the woman was born in Uganda and returned to Abuja with her husband on October 3 after travelling to the country.
Kaseya said investigations were ongoing to establish whether she had travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), had contact with anyone from the country or visited areas outside Kampala, Uganda.
Ugandan health authorities had earlier said the woman was Nigerian and had travelled to eastern DRC for business before passing through Uganda in early October.
Charles Olaro, Uganda’s Director-General of Health Services, said the woman did not develop symptoms while in Uganda but became ill after arriving in Nigeria. He cautioned that travelling through Uganda did not prove she contracted the virus there.
Alan Kasujja, Uganda’s government spokesperson, also told Reuters on Thursday that the country had no confirmed Ebola cases.
“If we did, as has happened before, we’d be the first to say,” he said.
Meanwhile, a senior Kenyan health official said authorities had traced all 135 contacts linked to the country’s first Ebola case, confirmed on October 6. Eight additional cases have since been reported.
Patrick Amoth, Director-General of Kenya’s Ministry of Health, said the last contact traced was a Ugandan citizen who arrived in Kenya in early October on the same flight as the index patient. The individual later left Kenya by road through the Namanga border post with Tanzania.
Amoth said the individual took longer to locate because he had left Kenya by road.
Reuters reported that the Africa CDC was investigating whether Kenya’s index patient might have come into contact with the woman being treated in Nigeria, as both travelled from Uganda’s Entebbe airport on the same day.
Mankoula, an Africa CDC official, said transmission between the two travellers was among the possible scenarios being investigated.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, including the deceased. Symptoms include fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, while severe cases may involve internal and external bleeding.
The Bundibugyo virus is a rare strain of Ebola. There is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the disease, although supportive medical care can improve patients’ chances of survival.
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