Nigeria has no active Ebola cases following the medical evacuation of a Swiss woman receiving treatment for the virus and her husband to Switzerland on Monday.
Health Minister Muhammad Pate said the woman, Nigeria’s first confirmed case in the current outbreak, was stable, conscious and able to communicate after her condition improved significantly.
However, he warned that she could still be infectious and that strict medical protocols remained in place. The woman tested positive after travelling to Abuja from Uganda. Authorities had yet to establish how she contracted the virus.
Nigeria will continue monitoring 52 people who had contact with her. Her husband, a Swiss diplomat, has shown no symptoms and is being isolated at Zurich University Hospital, while she is receiving treatment at Geneva University Hospital.
The World Health Organisation’s Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, said Nigerian medical teams had stabilised the patient before the evacuation.
Meanwhile, Kenya has released 20 people from quarantine after they completed 21 days without symptoms following exposure to the virus. Another 98 contacts are expected to be released from next Tuesday.
The outbreak has raised concerns across Africa, with the Democratic Republic of Congo reporting more than 9,900 cases and 4,800 deaths since May, according to its health ministry.
The WHO has warned that the outbreak is spreading rapidly, heightening concerns about the transmission of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.