Swiss Ministry Says Diplomat's Wife Caught Ebola in Uganda, Not DR Congo

The origin of Nigeria's first Ebola case in over a decade remains disputed, creating friction between African health agencies and the Swiss foreign ministry. Officials are scrambling to determine how the virus jumped to a fourth country while containment efforts face logistical hurdles.

The Swiss foreign ministry stated on Friday that the patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat stationed in Abuja. According to the ministry, the woman did not travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak began in mid-May. Officials believe she contracted the virus while traveling with her husband in Uganda. This account directly contradicts earlier claims from Uganda, which said the woman visited eastern DR Congo.

The discrepancy raises questions about the outbreak's geographic spread. Uganda reported cases in May and June, and the World Health Organization declared the country Ebola-free in August. A Ugandan government spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday that the country currently has no cases. The WHO is investigating the likely source of the infection. Catherine Smallwood, a WHO Ebola incident manager in DR Congo, told a UN briefing in Geneva via video link that WHO staff in DR Congo have no information indicating the patient traveled to that country.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is examining a potential link to a patient in Kenya. Dr Wessam Mankoula, the organization's head of emergency preparedness and response, noted that both individuals traveled through Uganda's Entebbe airport on 3 October. Smallwood said a connection to the Kenyan case is possible, but officials must compare the timing with the onset of the Nigerian patient's symptoms to determine where infection occurred.

Experts are skeptical of the airport theory. Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist and member of the WHO's Ebola emergency committee, called the theory very speculative unless there is evidence of sharing the same space in a manner that explains transmission. She added that random presence at a large airport is not a supported epidemiological link by any standard of current knowledge.

Nigeria's health minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, said the case remains contained and contact tracing is continuing. He stated the goal is to keep the virus from spreading into communities. The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved treatment or vaccine.

First announced on 15 May, the outbreak has infected more than 9,500 people and killed nearly half of them. It is the largest and deadliest outbreak in DR Congo's history and the second largest globally, behind the 2014-16 west Africa epidemic, which infected more than 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000.