Reuters. Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case on Tuesday (October 6) after a Kenyan citizen who had been living in Democratic Republic of Congo died in Nairobi, becoming the third country to record a case linked to the Ebola epidemic in eastern Congo.
The patient had been ill for about a month before travelling by road from Congo to Uganda's capital, Kampala, and then flying to Nairobi on Saturday (October 3), Health Minister Aden Duale told a news conference. He passed through health screening at Nairobi's international airport before being taken by a relative and a friend to Nairobi Hospital, where he was quickly isolated.
"The patient presented with fever, chills, intense fatigue, weakness, muscle pain, painful swallowing, sore throat and bleeding beneath the skin at injection sites", Duale said. Doctors suspected viral haemorrhagic fever and collected a sample that tested positive for Ebola and the Bundibugyo strain. He was given supportive treatment but died at around 11:30 p.m. on Monday (October 5).
Kenya's Director General of Health Patrick Amoth said the patient may have passed through airport screening because medication had masked his symptoms. Authorities are now trying to establish whether anyone else was exposed during his journey through Uganda and Kenya.
Health authorities have identified 28 contacts in Kenya, including relatives and healthcare workers who attended to the patient. They are also trying to trace 23 passengers and four crew members who were on his Jambojet flight from Kampala to Nairobi. Quarantine arrangements have been prepared for people considered to be at risk.
Kenya is now the third country to record a case linked to the outbreak in eastern Congo, which is the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record.
