Nigeria has evacuated its first confirmed Ebola patient of the current outbreak to Switzerland for continued treatment, health authorities said on Monday.
The patient is a 42-year-old Swiss woman, the wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, who tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus disease after returning from Uganda. She was airlifted by a medical plane at about 6 a.m. on Monday from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, confirmed the departure and said it was conducted under strict safety protocols.
Pate said the woman left the capital with his approval and that her clinical condition had improved significantly. He said she was stable, conscious and able to communicate, but remained potentially infectious. “This does not mean she is not still infectious, hence the strict protocols in place,” Pate wrote on X, as reported by the Associated Press.
Her husband, a Swiss diplomat who has shown no symptoms, was evacuated with her.
The World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, said the evacuation was arranged because the couple are Swiss citizens and Nigerian medical teams had already stabilised the woman through the acute phase of the illness.
“With the evacuation of the patient and her husband, Nigeria currently has no Ebola cases,” Janabi said, adding that Switzerland would take over her care while Nigeria continues to follow 52 other contacts.
Nigerian authorities said contact tracing and containment measures remain in place. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said the first patients in Nigeria and Kenya had both travelled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on Oct. 3.
Switzerland’s foreign ministry told the Associated Press that the woman had not visited Congo and was believed to have been infected while travelling to Uganda with her husband.
Nigeria has not yet been declared Ebola-free. A 42-day observation period is required after the last exposure.
