Swiss Ebola patient in Nigeria evacuated to Switzerland
The Swiss woman in Nigeria who has been infected with the Ebola virus is being brought back to Switzerland for treatment. She was flown out of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Monday morning, Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate announced on X.
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Swiss Ebola patient in Nigeria evacuated to Switzerland
The patient’s condition has improved significantly. She is stable, conscious and responsive. Her laboratory results had also returned to near-normal levels, Pate said.
The woman’s husband, a Swiss diplomat, was also flown out with her. He continues to show no symptoms. Despite the improvement in her condition, the patient may still be infectious. Strict protective measures are therefore being observed. The Nigerian Minister of Health indicated that further information would be provided on Monday afternoon, once the patient and her husband had arrived safely at their destination.
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The couple had travelled to Uganda before returning to Nigeria. First signalled last week, this infection remains the only one recorded in the country to date. Nigerian health authorities have identified 53 close contacts.
The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) did not initially confirm the information on the repatriation when contacted by the Keystone-SDA news agency.
A ‘more complex’ outbreak
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently warned that Africa was facing a “more complex” Ebola outbreak, as the virus has been detected in the west of the continent, while it is also present in the east and centre.
Nigeria had previously faced Ebola in 2014, during the outbreak that struck West Africa. That outbreak claimed more than 11,000 lives between late 2013 and 2016.
Two competent Swiss hospitals
Since 2019, Switzerland has had two reference hospitals equipped to treat diseases such as Ebola: the University Hospital of Zurich (USZ) and the University Hospital of Geneva (HUG).
+ WHO declares Ebola an international health emergency
To date, two people who had contracted Ebola in Africa have been treated in Switzerland. In 1995, a Swiss anthropologist was treated in Switzerland after contracting Ebola while working with monkeys in Africa. In 2014, a Cuban doctor was admitted to the Geneva University Hospital (HUG). He had become infected while on a humanitarian mission in Sierra Leone and was part of a medical team combating the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Both patients survived, according to the public health office.
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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.
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