A 42-year-old Ugandan-born Swiss national receiving treatment in Abuja has been identified as the spouse of a Swiss diplomat, marking Nigeria's first laboratory-confirmed case of the Ebola virus in more than ten years.
Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed her identity in an emailed statement, disclosing that the patient tested positive on October 20 after being admitted to a medical facility in the federal capital. Authorities suspect she acquired the pathogen during a two-and-a-half-week trip to Uganda before arriving in Abuja on October 3.
“She is believed to have contracted the virus whilst travelling to Uganda around two weeks ago,” the Swiss foreign ministry said, adding that her husband remains asymptomatic in isolation. Swiss officials also clarified that all 25 staff members at the embassy in Abuja are healthy and operating under heightened public health surveillance.
Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, confirmed that public health teams moved swiftly to identify and monitor anyone who had contact with the patient since her arrival.
“An undisclosed number of high-risk individuals have been quarantined, fully, in a facility,” Pate stated during a briefing on the containment measures.
The World Health Organization confirmed the infection is caused by the *Bundibugyo* species of the virus, a rare strain for which no licensed vaccines or targeted therapeutics currently exist. WHO representative in Nigeria Pavel Ursu noted that the patient arrived in Abuja after staying in Uganda from mid-September until early October.
Swiss and regional health authorities firmly dismissed suggestions that the patient visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Instead, epidemiologists led by Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Jean Kaseya are analyzing travel routes and cross-border contact points, including possible transit exposure at Entebbe International Airport.
Nigeria's public health authorities and international partners remain on high alert, emphasizing that rapid isolation, clinical monitoring, and aggressive contact tracing remain the primary defence against wider transmission.
