Person

Wessam Mankoula

1. Follow-up: Nigeria's first Ebola patient confirmed as wife of a Swiss diplomat; 44 close contacts quarantined

   After Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case in more than a decade on Oct 20, Switzerland's foreign ministry confirmed the patient is the 42-year-old Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat living in Abuja. It said she spent about a week with symptoms at a private clinic in Abuja before diagnosis and is believed to have been infected while travelling in Uganda, though health authorities have not confirmed the source; her husband is in quarantine without symptoms, and the embassy's eight Swiss and 17 local staff are healthy and need no quarantine. Wessam Mankoula of Africa CDC said 44 close contacts had been quarantined and authorities are investigating whether she met Kenya's first patient at an airport in Uganda; the outbreak in DR Congo, which began in May, has killed at least 4,600 people and infected about 9,700.

   Oct 24, 2026 Morning