Kenya has reported its first-ever Ebola death, the health minister said yesterday, after a Kenyan man who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) died after returning to the country.
The DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in May. The deadly disease has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.
Kenya has never previously reported a case. Neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 — almost all people who had travelled from the DRC — and two deaths, before being declared Ebola-free in August.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said a team was heading to Kenya to provide assistance, and its director general Jean Kaseya would also visit in the coming days.
The Kenyan citizen, who has not been named but was referred to as a 40-year-old businessman, fell ill around a month ago and had been treated in the DRC, Health Minister Aden Duale told reporters.
He travelled overland to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and then flew to Nairobi on October 3.
Duale said the man was suffering “fever, chills, intense fatigue, weakness, muscle pain, painful swallowing, sore throat and bleeding under the skin at the injection sites”.
The man’s relatives took him to a Nairobi hospital, where he was confirmed positive for the virus, before he “regrettably passed on last night at around 11:30” in the evening , Duale said.
Arrangements for a “safe and dignified burial” were planned for later yesterday, in line with public health standards.
Kenyan authorities have identified 28 contacts of the deceased, including family members and healthcare workers, but none have tested positive for Ebola so far.
Authorities are pursuing a further 23 passengers and four crew members who were on the same flight and that potential quarantine for those at risk had been prepared. “I wish to assure the public not to panic, as all systems are in place to mitigate the spread of the disease,” Duale said.
More care was needed at border entry points as “diseases know no boundaries”, Patrick Amoth, director general at the health ministry, told reporters. “The failure is the system that did not work,” he added to AFP, questioning how someone with such obvious symptoms was able to travel.
As of October 2, the World Health Organisation had recorded 4,082 deaths out of 8,463 cases since the emergence in the DRC of the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is still neither a vaccine nor a specific treatment.
After starting in the northeastern Ituri province, the current outbreak has spread to seven provinces in the north and east.
