The woman who tested positive for Ebola in Nigeria is the wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, with Switzerland’s government saying she is believed to have contracted the virus while travelling in Uganda, Reuters reports on Thursday.
The 42-year-old Ugandan-born woman tested positive on October 20, in what Nigerian authorities described as the country’s first confirmed Ebola case in more than a decade.
In a statement sent to Reuters on Thursday, Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said the woman had spent about a week at a private clinic in Abuja with symptoms before her diagnosis.
“She is believed to have contracted the virus whilst travelling to Uganda around two weeks ago,” the ministry said.
It added that her husband, who travelled with her, was in isolation but had not developed symptoms.
“Her husband is in isolation; he has not shown any symptoms. He was travelling with his wife when she is believed to have contracted Ebola,” the statement said.
However, the source of the woman’s infection remains unclear, as health authorities continue to reconstruct her movements and possible exposure.
