A Swiss woman receiving treatment for Ebola in Nigeria was medically evacuated to Switzerland along with her husband on Monday, officials said, as Nigerian authorities continued monitoring 52 people who had been in contact with her.
Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Pate said the woman, the country’s first confirmed case in the current outbreak, left the capital, Abuja, early Monday with his approval. Her condition had improved significantly, and she was stable, conscious and able to communicate, he said.
“This does not mean she is not still infectious, hence the strict protocols in place,” Pate wrote on X. Her husband, a Swiss diplomat stationed in Nigeria, has shown no symptoms.
Mohamed Janabi, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said the evacuation was arranged because the couple are Swiss citizens. Nigerian medical teams had stabilised the woman after treating her through the acute phase of the illness, he said.
Switzerland will take over her treatment and monitor her husband, while Nigeria will continue monitoring the other 52 contacts, Janabi said.
“With the evacuation of the patient and her husband, Nigeria currently has no Ebola cases,” he said, stressing that continued vigilance remained essential.
Pate said containment measures were still in place and urged Nigerians to remain alert.
The woman tested positive for Ebola after returning to Abuja from Uganda. Nigerian authorities said on Friday that they had not yet determined how she contracted the virus.
Switzerland’s foreign ministry told The Associated Press that the woman had not visited Congo and was believed to have contracted the infection while travelling to Uganda with her husband.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said the first patients identified in Nigeria and Kenya had both travelled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on October 3. Uganda had previously reported Ebola cases but later declared itself free of the virus.
Kenya has recorded nine cases, including two deaths, since confirming its first case earlier this month.
On Monday, Kenya released 20 people from quarantine after they had been identified as contacts of the country’s first Ebola patient. Another 98 people were expected to be released starting next Tuesday.
“Each of the 20 contacts was assessed against the release criteria, including 21 days without any symptoms since their last exposure,” the Kenyan Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The spread of Ebola beyond Congo has heightened longstanding concerns among health authorities about the rapid transmission of the rare Bundibugyo virus.
According to the latest figures from Congo’s health ministry, the outbreak has resulted in more than 9,900 cases, including over 4,800 deaths, since it began in May.
The WHO has described it as the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record and said it was on track to surpass the death toll of the deadliest outbreak, which occurred in West Africa from 2014 to 2016 and killed 11,000 people.
Nigeria was among the countries affected by that outbreak, recording 20 cases before the outbreak was declared over after three months.
