Switzerland's foreign ministry has confirmed that the woman who tested positive for Ebola in Nigeria is the wife of a Swiss diplomat, the BBC reported. The 42-year-old Ugandan-born woman, who lives in Abuja, tested positive on October 20, becoming Nigeria's first confirmed Ebola patient in more than a decade.
Source: Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs via BBC, Oct 23, 2026
The couple travelled to Uganda earlier in October. Her husband is in isolation but has not developed symptoms, the Swiss ministry said. All 25 staff at Switzerland's embassy in Nigeria — eight Swiss and 17 local employees — are in good health and did not need to isolate, a decision taken with Nigeria's health ministry and the World Health Organization; the embassy remains open.
Source: Swiss foreign ministry via BBC, Oct 23, 2026
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 and was believed to have contracted the virus while travelling in Uganda. She returned to Nigeria on October 3 after about two and a half weeks in Uganda and developed symptoms four days after arriving in Abuja, seeking treatment at two private facilities before testing positive.
Source: Swiss FDFA statement via Reuters, Oct 23, 2026
Where she was infected remains unproven. Ugandan officials have said she travelled to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo before passing through Uganda, but the Swiss government told Reuters she did not travel to DR Congo, contradicting accounts from Uganda. The WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said they had received no verified information confirming a DR Congo visit. "So far, there is no validated information (that) this case traveled to DRC," Africa CDC official Wessam Mankoula told a press conference on Thursday.
Source: Reuters; Africa CDC via Reuters, Oct 23, 2026
"The source of exposure is still not known. The travel history of the patient is still being pieced together," WHO emergency official Dr Patrick Otim said. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting genomic sequencing to establish whether her Bundibugyo-strain infection is linked to other cases, WHO representative Dr Pavel Ursu said. WHO said she is receiving treatment in isolation and showing signs of improvement. Nigerian authorities are tracing contacts beyond the 44 people initially identified.
Source: WHO officials via ThisDay, Oct 24, 2026
Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has meanwhile directed ministries, public institutions and stakeholders to strictly enforce approved Ebola screening, health declaration and surveillance protocols at all designated points of entry, in a circular dated October 22, following concerns raised by the Office of the National Security Adviser over reported breaches of entry protocols, ThisDay reported.
Source: ThisDay, Oct 24, 2026
The case sits inside the widest-spread Ebola outbreak yet recorded in Africa: the Bundibugyo outbreak that began in DR Congo in May has infected nearly 10,000 people and killed more than 4,600 there, and has since been reported in four countries. Kenya's health ministry said a second Kenyan patient — a 65-year-old woman, a close relative of the first Kenyan patient — had died, bringing Kenya to nine confirmed cases with no evidence of community spread, Reuters reported via ThisDay.