NAIROBI — Kenya has confirmed its first-ever case of Ebola, a Kenyan citizen who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo for seven years and died in a Nairobi isolation facility days after flying home, Health Minister Aden Duale said Tuesday, according to BBC News, The Guardian and DW.
Duale said the man fell ill about a month ago and was treated in several hospitals in Congo before traveling overland to Kampala, Uganda, and boarding a flight to Nairobi on Saturday, Oct. 3. He passed through normal screening at the airport and was taken by a relative to Nairobi Hospital, then moved to an isolation unit built during the Covid-19 pandemic, where he developed “fever, chills, intense fatigue and weakness, painful swallowing, muscle pain and bleeding under the skin.” Samples tested positive for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola. He died at about 11:30 p.m. Monday local time.
Health authorities have identified at least 28 contacts, including family members and health workers, and are tracing 23 passengers and four crew members from the same flight. “I wish to assure the public not to panic, as all systems are in place to mitigate the spread of the disease,” Duale said, adding that a safe burial was planned for Tuesday.
The World Health Organization has recorded 4,082 deaths among 8,463 cases in Congo’s current outbreak, which was declared in May and is the largest ever recorded in the country. There is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain, though several candidate vaccines are in development. Uganda recorded cases earlier this year but was declared Ebola-free in August.
Médecins Sans Frontières warned Monday of an “alarming surge” in North Kivu province, which now accounts for about 40 percent of newly confirmed cases. “It is like fighting a megafire,” said Stephanie Hoffmann, coordinator at MSF’s Ebola treatment center in Butembo. “Multiple outbreaks are developing at the same time, with varying intensity and in different locations.”
Sources: BBC News, The Guardian, DW
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