Ebola in Nigeria: Bern denies travel to DRC
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Businessday
The Swiss woman with Ebola in Nigeria did not travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, contrary to Ugandan statements, the Swiss government says. The clarification comes as the Nigerian case is part of an outbreak that has affected four African countries and caused about 4,700 deaths, according to Businessday, citing health authorities.
The Swiss government on Friday denied that the Ugandan wife of a Swiss diplomat posted in Abuja had travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) before contracting Ebola in Nigeria. “She and her husband did not travel to the DRC,” the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said, according to Reuters.
Ugandan authorities had said the patient travelled to eastern DRC, where the Ebola outbreak, declared in mid-May, spread at an unprecedented rate. The World Health Organization and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had, however, said they had no confirmed information about this trip. Uganda recorded 20 cases in May and June, mainly imported from the DRC, before being declared free of the virus in August.
The case detected in Nigeria is the first recorded in the country in more than a decade and brings to four the number of African countries affected by the outbreak, alongside the DRC, Uganda and Kenya. The virus has killed about 4,700 people, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Swiss denial follows Uganda’s request to Nigeria for the patient’s medical records on 23 October. It comes amid investigations since the confirmation of an isolated Ebola case in a traveller in Nigeria.
