WHO says Nigeria has no active Ebola cases after patient is evacuated to Switzerland

1. WHO’s Africa chief said Nigeria currently has no Ebola cases after the country evacuated its only confirmed patient and her husband to Switzerland.

2. Nigerian authorities identified 53 contacts, while the health minister said the patient remained potentially infectious despite clinical improvement.

2MM Brief: The World Health Organization’s Africa chief said Nigeria currently has no Ebola cases after the country evacuated its only confirmed patient and her husband to Switzerland. The patient, a 42-year-old woman who is a Swiss citizen and the wife of a Swiss embassy staff worker based in Abuja, had traveled in Uganda before returning to Nigeria on October 3. Nigerian authorities announced her diagnosis on October 20. Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said the patient’s condition was “much improved,” stable, conscious and communicative, with laboratory test results moving toward baseline. He cautioned that the improvement did not establish that she was no longer infectious. WHO Africa chief Mohamed Janabi said the woman was clinically stable after Nigeria managed her through the acute phase of illness. Nigerian authorities identified 53 contacts, according to the reports. The patient’s condition had previously worsened to multi-organ failure, the reports said. The case involved the Bundibugyo strain, which the reports said was associated with an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where more than 4,600 deaths had been recorded since May. The reports said there is no vaccine or specific treatment for this strain. Janabi had described Africa’s Ebola situation as a complex outbreak involving the continent’s west, east and center. The reports also noted concern about possible transmission during the period between the patient’s arrival in Nigeria and diagnosis. Nigeria’s health authorities previously contained an Ebola outbreak a dozen years ago. The sources did not report additional confirmed cases in Nigeria after the evacuation.

Source: World Health Organization

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