Nigeria says Ebola patient’s evacuation to Switzerland followed formal request and health safeguards

Nigeria’s decision to evacuate its confirmed Ebola patient to Switzerland followed a formal request from the Swiss Embassy and consultations with federal health authorities, according to Jide Idris, director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Idris rejected suggestions that the patient had been secretly removed from the country. He said the government considered diplomatic issues, the patient’s human rights and international health regulations before authorising the transfer.

Infection-prevention measures, he added, were maintained from the hospital in Abuja to the aircraft. The patient, a 42-year-old Ugandan-born woman living in Abuja, tested positive twice, Idris said. She had returned to Nigeria from Uganda on October 3 and developed symptoms several days later.

She was admitted and treated in isolation before being taken from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on an evacuation flight, as reported by Premium Times and Sky News. Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, said the patient and her husband arrived safely in Switzerland on Monday. The patient is being treated at Geneva University Hospitals, while her husband has been placed in isolation at University Hospital Zurich.

Switzerland has taken responsibility for her care and for monitoring her husband. Idris said the patient’s clinical condition had improved after Nigerian doctors stabilised her, following a period that included multiple organ failure. He stressed, however, that improvement did not mean she had cleared the virus.

He also said there were no established drugs specifically targeting Bundibugyo virus, the Ebola strain identified in the outbreak. The World Health Organization said Nigeria had no active confirmed Ebola cases after the evacuation, although surveillance and containment work continued. Nigerian authorities are monitoring 52 contacts.

The NCDC had previously identified 53 primary contacts, including healthcare workers, the patient’s husband, domestic staff and people involved in collecting samples. The difference between the two figures reflects the patient’s transfer and the fact that Switzerland is now monitoring her husband, who had been included among Nigeria’s contacts. Authorities are continuing to watch for symptoms and additional infections.

Pate said Nigeria could declare the outbreak over as early as December 7 if no further confirmed or probable cases emerge. Idris urged Nigerians to wash their hands and exercise caution at mass gatherings, particularly where close physical contact occurs. He said Ebola is not airborne and is mainly spread through direct contact with an infected person’s blood or other bodily fluids, or contaminated materials.

He also advised anyone who develops compatible symptoms after contact with a suspected or confirmed case to seek medical guidance promptly. Idris warned against using herbal mixtures as a preventive or cure, saying there was no established evidence for their effectiveness and that some products could cause harmful side effects.