The index patient diagnosed with Ebola virus disease in Nigeria was evacuated from the country early this morning by air ambulance from the private jet wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
Journalists informed by a source that the patient, a woman who is the wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Nigeria, was due to leave the country at 6 a.m. aboard a medical evacuation aircraft that was already waiting at the airport. The outlet’s crew, which had been deployed to the General Aviation Terminal, later captured photographs of a three-vehicle convoy arriving from the Abuja city centre. The convoy included ambulances and diplomatic vehicles, among them a vehicle belonging to an international agency, as it entered the private jet section of the airport.
Airport officials cordoned off the private wing during the operation. Journalists obtained video footage of the medical evacuation aircraft and its crew as they prepared to transfer the passenger, who was understood to be the confirmed Ebola index case given the specialised nature of the flight. A source told sources that the Federal Government intended to announce the medical evacuation only after the aircraft had taken off and left Nigerian airspace.
By John James
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