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First confirmed Ebola patient in Nigeria evacuated to Switzerland · Best of: Features

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  First confirmed Ebola patient in Nigeria evacuated to Switzerland Written by Dipkaza
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  Shibayan and Mark Bonchero. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice generated by Everlet. Abuja, Nigerian the AP, a Swiss
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  woman, being treated for Ebola in Nigeria, was medically evacuated to Switzerland
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  with her husband Monday, officials said, as Nigerian authorities continued monitoring fifty
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  two people who had been in contact with her. Nigerian Health Minister
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  Mohammed Pade said the woman, the country's first case in the current
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  outbreak, left the capital, Abuja, early Monday with his approval. Her condition
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  had improved significantly, and she was stable, conscious, and able to communicate,
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  he said. This does not mean she is not still infectious, hence
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  the strict protocols in place, Pate wrote on X. Her husband, a
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  Swiss diplomat in Nigeria, has shown no symptoms. Switzerland's Federal Office of
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  Public Health said the couple arrived Monday on a medical evacuation flight.
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  The woman was being treated at Geneva University Hospital while her husband
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  was in isolation at Zurich University Hospital. The agency said both hospitals
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  were equipped to care for them and that there was no risk
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  to the Swiss public. The World Health Organization's Regional Director for Africa,
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  Mohammed Janabi, said the evacuation was arranged because the couple are Swiss
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  citizens and that Nigerian medical teams had stabilized the woman after treating
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  her through the acute phase of the illness. Nigeria will continue monitoring
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  fifty-two other contacts, Janabe said. With the evacuation of the patient and
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  her husband, Nigeria currently has no Ebola cases, he said, stressing that
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  vigilance remained critical. Pate said containment measures remained in place and urged
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  Nigerians to remain vigilant. The woman tested positive after returning to Buja
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  from Uganda. Nigerian authorities said Friday they had yet to establish how
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  she contracted the virus. Switzerland's foreign ministry told the Associated Press last
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  week that she had not visited Congo and was believed to have
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  been infected while traveling to Uganda with her husband. The Africa Centers
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  for Disease Control and Prevention said the first patients in Nigeria and
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  Kenya had both traveled through Uganda's Entebi International Airport on October third.
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  Uganda had previously reported Ebola case, but later declared itself free of
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  the virus. Kenya has recorded nine cases, including two deaths, since confirming
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  its first case earlier this month. On Monday, Kenya released twenty people
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  from quarantine following their exposure to the virus as contacts of the
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  country's first case, while ninety eight others were expected to be released
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  starting next Tuesday. Each of the twenty contacts was assessed against the
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  release criteria, including twenty one days without any symptoms since their last
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  exposure, the Kenyan Ministry of Health said in a statement. The spread
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  of Ebola beyond Congo has heightened long standing fears among health authorities
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  about the rapid transmission of the rare Bundibuggyo virus. The latest figures
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  from Congo's Health Ministry show more than nine thousand nine hundred cases,
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  including more than four thousand eight hundred deaths, since the outbreak began
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  in May. The WHO has said the outbreak is the fastest spreading
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  Ebola outbreak on record and is on track to surpass the death
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  toll of the deadliest. West Africa's 2014-2016 outbreak, which killed 11,000
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  people. Nigeria was among the countries affected, recording 20 cases before its
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  outbreak was declared over after three months. Boncharo reported from Dakar, Senegal,
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  Evelyn Musambi contributed from Nairobi, Kenya.