Why was an Ebola patient flown from Nigeria to Switzerland?

Nigeria's health minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, says a 42-year-old woman was flown out of Abuja for treatment in Switzerland. She is the wife of a Swiss embassy employee, who travelled with her. Swiss authorities had not confirmed the transfer when first contacted.

Pate says she is improving, but that does not mean she is no longer contagious. Nigeria has identified 53 contacts. Her husband shows no symptoms.

Where she caught it is disputed. Ugandan officials' statements that she had been in Congo are rejected by Switzerland, and the Africa CDC says her travel documents show she did not go there. Congo counts 9704 confirmed cases and 4687 deaths.

Switzerland has treated Ebola before: a Swiss anthropologist in 1995 and a Cuban doctor in 2014, both of whom survived. Since 2019, Zurich and Geneva have been the reference centres.