The FG, through the NCDC, had earlier reported that Nigeria’s Ebola index patient suffered multiple organ failure.
By Kehinde Okeowo
A woman identified as Nigeria’s Ebola index patient has reportedly been evacuated from the country aboard a medical air ambulance after her condition worsened.
According to Arise Television, the evacuation took place early on Monday morning through the private jet terminal of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The news outlet further disclosed that a convoy of three vehicles, including ambulances and diplomatic vehicles, arrived at the airport’s private wing.
Airport officials reportedly cordoned off the area, while the news outlet said it later obtained video footage showing a medical evacuation aircraft preparing to transport the patient.
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While some reports identified the woman as the wife of a Swiss diplomat in Nigeria, her name has yet to be disclosed by the Nigerian government.
Apart from this, the Federal Government was yet to make an official announcement regarding the reported evacuation at the time of this report.
Nigeria confirmed its first case on Tuesday, 20 October, in a woman who arrived from Uganda on 3 October; since then, several contacts have been monitored.
Briefing Nigerians, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, said: “A woman who recently arrived in Nigeria on an international flight from Uganda was admitted to a private hospital in the FCT, where she received treatment for several days before the diagnosis was confirmed.”
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) later reported: “The patient’s condition has deteriorated. We did three levels of tests, but all were molecular. The strain was Bundibugyo.”
Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and Nigerian health authorities confirmed the identity of the index Ebola patient as the 42-year-old Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja.
