The Swiss government says the woman diagnosed with Ebola Bundibugyo disease in Nigeria is believed to have contracted the virus during a trip to Uganda.
Gatekeepers News reports that in a statement to Reuters on Thursday, Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs identified the patient as an Ugandan-born woman married to 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.
According to the Swiss government, the woman’s husband, who travelled with her, was in isolation but had not developed any 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 Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said the patient was born in Uganda and had travelled there before returning to Abuja with her husband on October 3.
Kaseya said health authorities were investigating whether the woman had also travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), had contact with anyone from the country or visited areas outside Kampala, Uganda.
However, Uganda’s health authorities had earlier said the woman was Nigerian and had travelled to eastern DRC for business before transiting 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.
Olaro cautioned that travelling through Uganda did not establish that the woman contracted the virus there, adding that the location of exposure remained under investigation.
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.
Africa CDC Investigates Possible Link to Kenya Cases
Meanwhile, a senior Kenyan health official said authorities had traced all 135 contacts of the country’s first Ebola case, confirmed on October 6. Eight additional cases had 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 but later left the country by road through the Namanga border post with Tanzania.
Amoth said locating the individual took longer because the person had exited Kenya by road.
According to Reuters, the Africa CDC was investigating whether Kenya’s index patient might have come into contact with the woman being treated in Nigeria, as both had travelled from Uganda’s Entebbe airport on the same day.
Mankoula, an Africa CDC official, said transmission between the two travellers was one of the possible scenarios under investigation.
What to Know About Ebola Bundibugyo
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, whether living or dead. Symptoms can include fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, while severe cases may involve internal and external bleeding.
Bundibugyo virus is a rare species of Ebola virus. There is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the disease, although supportive medical care can improve patients’ chances of survival.
Health authorities are continuing investigations to establish the source of the Nigerian infection and determine whether there are links to cases reported elsewhere in the region.
