By Robbie Corey-Boulet
DAKAR, Oct 23 (Reuters) – The Ebola patient in Nigeria, the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, did not travel to Democratic Republic of Congo, the Swiss government told Reuters on Friday, contradicting accounts from Uganda.
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs had told Reuters on Thursday that the woman, whom it identified as a Swiss national, was believed to have contracted Ebola while travelling with her husband in Uganda, where the government says there are no cases.
Ugandan authorities have said the woman who fell ill in Nigeria had travelled to eastern Congo, where an Ebola outbreak was declared in mid-May and has since become the fastest-spreading on record.
Ebola cases have now been detected in four African countries — Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria — and the viral infection is confirmed to have killed about 4,700 people, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
The World Health Organization said investigations were continuing to establish the likely source of infection for the Ebola patient in Nigeria.
Africa CDC is looking into whether the patient may have come into contact with a case in Kenya, as both travelled from Uganda’s Entebbe airport on the same day.
Catherine Smallwood, a WHO Ebola incident manager in Congo, told a UN briefing in Geneva via video link on Friday that WHO staff in Congo had no information showing the Nigeria case had travelled to Congo.
Smallwood said a link to the case in Kenya was possible, but added that officials would need to compare the timing with when the Nigeria patient’s symptoms began to tell whether the infection more likely happened at the Ugandan airport or elsewhere.
UGANDA HAS NOT REPORTED EBOLA CASES SINCE JUNE
Uganda reported 20 Ebola cases in May and June, mostly imported from Congo, but the WHO declared the country Ebola-free in August.
Ugandan government spokesperson Alan Kasujja told Reuters on Thursday that Uganda had no Ebola cases and that, if it did, it would make that information public. His phone was off when Reuters called seeking comment on Friday.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, whether living or dead. The disease can cause fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, internal and external bleeding.
The rare Ebola species behind the current outbreak kills about half of those infected and has no approved treatment or vaccine.
(Reporting by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Additional reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva and Ayen Deng Bior in Dakar; Editing by Alexander Winning and Xevi Fontdegloria)
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