Nigeria’s confirmed Ebola case may have been contracted in Uganda, according to the Swiss government, although health authorities have yet to establish the source of the infection amid conflicting accounts of the patient’s travel history.
The patient, a 42-year-old Ugandan-born woman married to a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, has been receiving treatment at a private clinic in the Nigerian capital. Her husband, who travelled with her, is in isolation but has not developed symptoms.
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs told Reuters in an emailed statement on Thursday that the woman was believed to have contracted the virus during a visit to Uganda about two weeks earlier.
However, the World Health Organisation and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said they had not received verified information confirming that she travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the current Ebola outbreak began.
Ugandan authorities had earlier said the woman travelled to eastern DRC before transiting through Uganda. But Africa CDC official Wessam Mankoula said there was no validated information confirming that she had visited the DRC.
Nigeria and Uganda are exchanging information to reconstruct her movements and determine the possible source of infection.
WHO representative to Nigeria Pavel Ursu said information available to the agency indicated that the woman was in Uganda from September 16 and returned to Abuja on October 3. He said there was no confirmed information that she had travelled outside Uganda.
Patrick Otim, a WHO emergency response manager, said the source of the infection remained unknown as investigations continued.
Investigators are also examining the health facilities the woman visited in Abuja after developing symptoms but before her hospitalisation, including the possibility that other people were exposed during that period.
The patient reportedly developed symptoms on October 6, three days after returning to Nigeria. She initially sought treatment at a private hospital for what she believed was malaria before visiting another facility, where she was admitted on October 11 after her condition failed to improve. Laboratory tests subsequently confirmed the infection.
Health authorities have identified 44 people who may have been exposed to the patient, including healthcare workers, patients, caregivers and travel contacts. Contact tracing is under way as the government works with international partners to establish her movements and identify possible secondary cases.
The WHO has urged Nigerians to remain calm, explaining that a single confirmed imported case does not automatically mean the country is experiencing an Ebola outbreak. The agency is supporting Nigeria with case investigation, laboratory testing, contact tracing and infection prevention measures.
Meanwhile, Uganda’s government said the country had no active Ebola cases. Uganda recorded 20 cases between May and June, most of them linked to infections imported from the DRC. The WHO declared the outbreak over in August after 42 days without a new confirmed case.
The regional outbreak, declared in the DRC in May, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a species of Ebola for which there is currently no licensed vaccine. Kenya has also reported cases linked to cross-border transmission, raising concerns about the difficulty of tracing infections among international travellers.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person, or contaminated materials. Symptoms can include fever, headache, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea.
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