NAIROBI-(Maravi Post)-Kenya has confirmed its first Ebola death, raising fears of further transmission after a citizen who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) tested positive for the deadly virus after arriving in Nairobi.
BBC News reports that the patient had spent several years in the DRC, where the world’s largest current Ebola outbreak is underway. He travelled by road to Uganda before flying to Nairobi, where he later developed severe symptoms and died on Monday night.
Kenya’s Health Minister Aden Duale said laboratory tests confirmed that the patient had contracted the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a relatively rare form of the virus for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment.
The case has triggered an intensified public-health response, with authorities increasing surveillance at airports and border crossings to prevent further spread.
At least 28 contacts, including relatives and healthcare workers, have already been identified. Health officials are also tracing 23 passengers and four crew members who were on the same flight as the infected traveller.
Officials believe the patient may have passed through airport screening because medication he was taking could have masked some of his symptoms.
After becoming ill in Nairobi, the patient was initially taken to Nairobi Hospital before being transferred to an isolation facility established during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Doctors suspected a viral haemorrhagic fever after he developed fever, chills, extreme fatigue, painful swallowing, muscle pain and bleeding beneath the skin. Laboratory testing subsequently confirmed Ebola Bundibugyo.
The patient died at 23:30 local time on Monday and was buried the following day under strict public-health procedures, with the Kenyan Red Cross overseeing the burial.
The Kenyan case comes as the DRC struggles to contain a rapidly expanding outbreak. The World Health Organization has recorded 8,544 cases and 4,114 deaths in the current outbreak.
Médecins Sans Frontières has warned that the actual number of infections and deaths could be higher because conflict and gaps in surveillance are making it difficult to detect and monitor cases across affected areas.
The organisation has described the spread in parts of eastern DRC as extremely rapid, with North Kivu now accounting for a growing share of newly confirmed infections after the outbreak began in Ituri.
Eastern DRC has been destabilised by years of armed conflict, displacement and weak healthcare infrastructure, creating major obstacles for health workers trying to trace contacts and contain the virus.
Uganda also recorded Ebola cases after the DRC outbreak began, but the World Health Organization declared the country free of the disease in August.
Kenyan authorities are urging citizens not to panic, while calling on health workers to maintain strict infection-prevention and control measures.
The immediate concern is whether Kenya’s case remains an isolated infection brought across the border or becomes the starting point for local transmission.
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