Star Metro - Swiss Ebola patient repatriated from Nigeria

The patient, the 42-year-old wife of a Swiss embassy staff worker based in the capital Abuja, had been travelling in Uganda with her husband before returning to Nigeria.

"A woman infected with Ebola is currently being treated at Geneva University Hospital (HUG). Her husband, identified as a close contact, is in isolation at Zurich University Hospital (USZ)," the Swiss health ministry said in a statement.

"This situation does not pose any risk to the population in Switzerland."

HUG said the Ebola patient was in a stable condition and receiving specialist care.

"She will remain in isolation for as long as her health status and public health requirements need," the hospital said.

Since 2019, the HUG and USZ hospitals have been equipped to treat patients with diseases such as Ebola -- with isolation wards and trained medical staff.

"Special technical safety measures ensure the safe entry and exit of patients and staff," a USZ spokesman told AFP.

"There is no risk to regular patients or visitors," he stressed.

- Contact tracing efforts -

The woman is the only case confirmed in Nigeria in Africa's latest deadly Ebola outbreak.

Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate earlier said in a statement that her condition was much improved and she was "conscious, communicating, and her clinical laboratory test results closing towards baseline".

"This does not mean she is not still infectious," he added.

"Here in Nigeria, contact monitoring, investigation of alerts and other containment measures continue."

Fifty-three of the patient's contacts have been identified by the Nigerian health authorities.

Mohamed Janabi, the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa regional director, said Nigeria had "successfully managed her through the acute phase of the illness".

Nigerian authorities last week said the patient's condition had at one point deteriorated into "multi-organ failure".

Following the evacuation, Nigeria "currently has no Ebola cases", Janabi confirmed on X.

Janabi last week warned that Africa was facing a "complex" Ebola outbreak, with the virus now present in the west, east and centre of the continent, and set to surpass the 10,000 confirmed cases mark.

The outbreak of the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, for which there is no vaccine or specific treatment, has been ravaging the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has recorded more than 4,600 deaths since May.

Health authorities in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, successfully stemmed a previous Ebola outbreak a dozen years ago.

But some experts are worried about whether the virus -- caught through contact with bodily fluids -- could have spread after the Swiss couple landed back in Nigeria on October 3.

The WHO said the patient developed symptoms on October 7; sought care in Abuja on October 11; then tested positive for Bundibugyo on October 20.

O.Martin--SMC