Ebola patient medically evacuated from Nigeria to Switzerland

A woman diagnosed with Ebola in Nigeria has been medically evacuated to Switzerland after her condition improved sufficiently for an international transfer, Nigerian health authorities confirmed today (Monday 26 October). 

The patient, a Ugandan-born Swiss citizen married to a diplomat based in Abuja, is Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola case in more than a decade. She departed the Nigerian capital aboard a medical evacuation flight accompanied by her husband, who has shown no symptoms. 

Nigeria’s Health Minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, said the woman was stable, conscious, and communicating before departure, with laboratory results approaching normal levels. 

However, he cautioned that clinical improvement did not mean she was no longer infectious, stressing that strict public health protocols had been maintained throughout the evacuation. 

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, praised Nigerian clinicians for managing the acute phase of the illness and stabilising the patient. 

Switzerland will assume responsibility for her continued treatment and monitoring of her husband, while Nigerian authorities continue surveillance of 52 other contacts. 

Infection source under investigation 

The evacuation comes as Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention prepares to deploy specialist scientists to Nigeria to investigate how the woman contracted the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola. 

The patient had recently travelled to Uganda but had not visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the outbreak began in May. 

Investigators are examining a possible epidemiological connection with Kenya’s first reported case, involving a traveller who passed through Uganda’s Entebbe airport. 

The outbreak has spread to four African countries, with nearly 10,000 cases and more than 4,800 deaths reported in DRC alone. 

The evacuation highlights the specialist clinical and infection-control requirements involved in transferring patients with highly infectious diseases across international borders.