Swiss Ebola patient discharged from Geneva hospital

Geneva University Hospital has discharged the Swiss woman treated for Ebola after 16 days in care. The hospital confirmed her release in response to an enquiry from Keystone-SDA. Tribune de Genève was the first to report that she had left hospital on Wednesday.

Her discharge means there are no longer any patients hospitalised with Ebola in Switzerland. The woman had been brought to Geneva after testing positive in Nigeria, where she was living or working at the time of the diagnosis. She received treatment at Geneva University Hospital, which handled her care after her return to Switzerland.

The case involved a Swiss national evacuated from abroad and treated in Geneva. Her husband also returned to Switzerland with her and was placed in isolation in Zurich as a close contact. He left hospital earlier, on November 4, without contracting the virus.

The patient tested positive in Nigeria on October 20 and was flown to Switzerland six days later. Rega transported her on October 26 in an air ambulance. She was then treated at Geneva University Hospital, where she remained for 16 days before leaving on Wednesday.

The sequence began with her diagnosis in Nigeria and ended with her discharge in Geneva. Her return brought the case into Swiss hospital care, with the Geneva hospital confirming the outcome after she had completed treatment. The discharge closes the period of hospitalisation for the woman in Switzerland.

The evacuation had also brought her husband back to the country. He travelled alongside her and was managed separately as a close contact in Zurich. His case followed a shorter hospital stay: he was released from isolation on November 4, before his wife left Geneva University Hospital.

The patient’s husband was isolated in Zurich as a close contact, but he did not contract Ebola. He returned to Switzerland alongside his wife and was admitted to University Hospital Zurich for isolation. He left hospital on November 4, eight days after the couple arrived in Switzerland.

The man is an employee of the Swiss Embassy in Nigeria. His isolation was a separate part of the response to the case, while his wife received treatment in Geneva. The two hospitals involved were Geneva University Hospital and University Hospital Zurich.

His discharge came before his wife’s. By the time she left Geneva after 16 days of treatment, her husband had already been out of hospital for a week. The outcome means neither member of the couple remains hospitalised with Ebola in Switzerland: the woman completed treatment in Geneva, and her husband did not become infected.

There are now zero patients hospitalised with Ebola in Switzerland. That status follows the Geneva patient’s discharge, after her 16-day course of treatment, and her husband’s earlier release from isolation in Zurich. He tested negative for infection in the sense that he did not contract the disease, according to the report.

The case connected medical care in two Swiss cities with an evacuation from Nigeria. Rega flew the woman to Switzerland on October 26, six days after she tested positive. Geneva University Hospital treated her, while University Hospital Zurich isolated her husband as a close contact. Both have now left hospital.

The woman’s discharge was confirmed by Geneva University Hospital to Keystone-SDA. The report was published on November 12, after Tribune de Genève first reported that she had left hospital on Wednesday. Her release marks the end of the hospital stays linked to this Ebola case in Switzerland.