Health authorities in Nigeria are working with their Ugandan counterparts to establish the source of an Ebola infection in a woman receiving treatment at a private clinic in Abuja.
The case marks Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola infection in more than a decade, although investigators have yet to determine where the woman contracted the virus.
According to Reuters, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in an emailed statement on Thursday that the patient is a Ugandan-born woman married to a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja. She has reportedly been receiving treatment for about a week.
The woman is believed to have contracted the virus during a visit to Uganda approximately two weeks before her diagnosis. Her husband, who travelled with her, is currently in isolation but has not developed symptoms.
However, the World Health Organisation and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention say they have not received verified information confirming that the woman travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the current Ebola outbreak originated.
Ugandan authorities had earlier indicated that she travelled to eastern DRC before passing through Uganda.
Africa CDC official Wessam Mankoula said there was no validated information confirming the patient’s visit to the DRC, adding that Nigeria and Uganda were exchanging information to reconstruct her travel history and identify the possible source of infection.
The 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 added that the information did not establish whether she had travelled to any country outside Uganda.
WHO emergency response manager Patrick Otim also said investigations were ongoing to determine how the woman contracted the virus.
Investigators are examining the health facilities she visited in Abuja after developing symptoms but before her hospitalisation, including the possibility that she may have been exposed to other people during that period.
Meanwhile, the Ugandan government says there are currently no active Ebola cases in the country.
Uganda recorded 20 Ebola cases between May and June, most of which were linked to infections imported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The World Health Organisation declared the outbreak in Uganda over in August after the country went 42 days without recording a new confirmed case.
