HomeWorldAfricaNigeria Ebola patient did not travel to Congo, Swiss government says

Nigeria Ebola patient did not travel to Congo, Swiss government says

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DAKAR, ‌Oct 23 (Reuters) - The Ebola patient in Nigeria, the ​Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, did not travel to ⁠Democratic Republic of Congo, the Swiss government said in a statement to Reuters on Friday, contradicting accounts from Uganda.

The Swiss Federal Department of ​Foreign Affairs had on Thursday told Reuters that the woman, who it identified ‌as a Swiss national, was believed to have contracted Ebola while travelling with her husband in Uganda, where the government says there are no ⁠cases.

Ugandan authorities have said the woman who fell ⁠ill in Nigeria had travelled to eastern Congo, where the ongoing outbreak was declared in mid-May and has since become the fastest-spreading on record.

But the World Health Organization and Africa's top health agency said ‌on Thursday they had not received confirmed information that the woman had ⁠travelled to Congo."She and her husband did ‌not travel to the Democratic Republic of ​the Congo," the Swiss foreign affairs department said on Friday.

Uganda reported 20 Ebola cases in May and June, mostly imported from Congo, ‌but the WHO declared the country Ebola-free in August.

Ugandan ​government spokesperson Alan Kasujja told ⁠Reuters on Thursday that Uganda had no Ebola cases ‌and that if it did, it ⁠would make that information public.

The case in Nigeria, the country's first Ebola case in more than a decade, means the outbreak has spread ​to four African countries - ‌Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria - and it is confirmed to have killed ⁠about 4,700 people, according to the ​Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

(Reporting by Robbie Corey-Boulet; ​Editing by Ayen Deng Bior)

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