An Ebola patient in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has reportedly been evacuated from Nigeria by an air ambulance, ARISE News has reported.
The television station disclosed this in a post on its official X account on Monday, stating that the patient, said to be the wife of a Swiss diplomat in Nigeria, was flown out of the country early in the morning.
According to the report, the medical evacuation took place at the private jet wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
ARISE News said it had received information that the patient would be flown out of Nigeria at about 6am, with a medical evacuation aircraft already stationed at the airport.
The station's crew, deployed to the General Aviation Terminal, reportedly obtained photographs of a convoy of ambulances arriving from the Abuja city centre, accompanied by diplomatic vehicles.
The report stated that the three-vehicle convoy included a vehicle belonging to an international agency, which proceeded into the airport's private jet section.
It further disclosed that airport officials initially cordoned off the private wing but that the station eventually obtained video footage showing a medical evacuation aircraft and its crew preparing to transport the sick passenger.
The patient was suspected to be the index case of Ebola in Nigeria, although the report did not provide further details about her medical condition or destination.
ARISE News also quoted a source as saying the Federal Government would announce the evacuation only after the aircraft had taken off and left Nigerian airspace.
The reported evacuation comes days after the Federal Government confirmed an Ebola case in the FCT on October 20.
At the time, the government disclosed that 44 contacts of the confirmed case had been identified for monitoring as part of efforts to contain the disease.
There was no official confirmation of the reported evacuation in the information available at the time of filing this report.
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