First confirmed Ebola patient in Nigeria evacuated to Switzerland

Michael Buholzer/Keystone/AP

A Swiss woman being treated for Ebola in Nigeria was medically evacuated to Switzerland with her husband 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 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 in Nigeria, has shown no symptoms.

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health said the couple arrived Monday on a medical evacuation flight. The woman was being treated at Geneva University Hospital, while her husband was in isolation at Zurich University Hospital. The agency said both hospitals were equipped to care for them and that there was no risk to the Swiss public.

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The World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, said the evacuation was arranged because the couple are Swiss citizens and that Nigerian medical teams had stabilized the woman after treating her through the acute phase of the illness.

Nigeria will continue monitoring 52 other contacts, Janabi said.

“With the evacuation of the patient and her husband, Nigeria currently has no Ebola cases,” he said, stressing that vigilance remained critical.

Pate said containment measures remained in place and urged Nigerians to remain vigilant.

The woman tested positive after returning to Abuja from Uganda. Nigerian authorities said Friday they had yet to establish how she contracted the virus.

Switzerland’s foreign ministry told The Associated Press that she had not visited Congo and was believed to have been infected while traveling to Uganda with her husband.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the first patients in Nigeria and Kenya had both traveled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on Oct. 3. Uganda had previously reported Ebola cases but later declared itself free of the virus.

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Kenya prepared for Ebola. It still slipped through — a warning of wider cross-border spread

Kenya has recorded nine cases, including two deaths, since confirming its first case earlier this month.

On Monday, Kenya released 20 people from quarantine following their exposure to the virus as contacts of the country’s first case, while 98 others 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 fears among health authorities about the rapid transmission of the rare Bundibugyo virus.

The latest figures from Congo’s health ministry show more than 9,900 cases, including more than 4,800 deaths, since the outbreak began in May.

WHO has said the outbreak is the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record and is on track to surpass the death toll of the deadliest : West Africa’s 2014-16 outbreak, which killed 11,000 people. Nigeria was among the countries affected, recording 20 cases before its outbreak was declared over after three months.

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官员称，一名在尼日利亚接受埃博拉治疗的瑞士女子周一与她的丈夫一起被医疗撤离回瑞士，与此同时，尼日利亚当局继续监测与她有过接触的 52 人。

尼日利亚卫生部长穆罕默德·帕特表示，这名女性是该国当前疫情的首例确诊病例，已于周一清晨经他批准离开首都阿布贾。他说，该女性病情已显著好转，目前情况稳定，意识清醒，能够与人交流。

“但这并不意味着她不再具有传染性，因此才采取了严格的防疫措施，”佩特在X上写道。她的丈夫是驻尼日利亚的一名瑞士外交官，目前没有出现任何症状。

瑞士联邦公共卫生局表示，这对夫妇周一乘坐医疗救援航班抵达瑞士。女子在日内瓦大学医院接受治疗，而她的丈夫则在苏黎世大学医院接受隔离治疗。该机构称，两家医院均具备收治他们的条件，不会对瑞士公众构成风险。

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世界卫生组织非洲区域主任穆罕默德·贾纳比表示，之所以安排撤离，是因为这对夫妇是瑞士公民，而且尼日利亚医疗队在治疗该女子度过急性期后，已经稳定了她的病情。

贾纳比表示，尼日利亚将继续监测其他52个接触者。

“随着患者及其丈夫的撤离，尼日利亚目前没有埃博拉病例，”他说道，并强调保持警惕仍然至关重要。

帕特表示，防控措施仍然有效，并敦促尼日利亚民众保持警惕。

这名女子从乌干达返回阿布贾后，病毒检测呈阳性。尼日利亚当局周五表示，他们尚未确定她是如何感染病毒的。

瑞士外交部告诉美联社，她没有去过刚果，据信是在和丈夫一起前往乌干达旅行时感染的。

非洲疾病控制和预防中心表示，尼日利亚和肯尼亚的首例患者均于10月3日途经乌干达恩德培国际机场。乌干达此前曾报告过埃博拉病例，但后来宣布该国已无埃博拉病毒。

Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images

肯尼亚已做好应对埃博拉疫情的准备，但疫情仍然蔓延至此——这预示着疫情可能出现更广泛的跨境传播。

自本月初确诊首例病例以来，肯尼亚已记录了9例病例，其中包括2例死亡。

周一，肯尼亚解除了 20 名因接触过病毒而受到隔离的人员的隔离，这些人是该国首例病例的密切接触者；预计从下周二开始，还将有 98 人解除隔离。

肯尼亚卫生部在一份声明中表示：“对这 20 名接触者中的每一个人都进行了解除隔离标准评估，包括自最后一次接触以来 21 天内没有任何症状。”

埃博拉病毒在刚果以外地区的传播加剧了卫生当局长期以来对罕见的邦迪布焦病毒快速传播的担忧。

刚果卫生部最新数据显示，自 5 月份疫情爆发以来，该国已累计报告 9900 多例病例，其中死亡 4800 多例。

世界卫生组织表示，此次疫情是史上传播速度最快的埃博拉疫情，死亡人数有望超过此前最致命的埃博拉疫情——2014-2016年西非埃博拉疫情，该疫情造成11000人死亡。尼日利亚是受影响的国家之一，在疫情爆发三个月后宣布结束前，该国共报告了20例病例。