Ebola reaches Kenya on a commercial flight: the patient has died and 57 contacts are being traced

Note

Kenya’s Ministry of Health confirmed on Oct 6 the country’s first case of Ebola: an imported case of Bundibugyo virus disease in a Kenyan citizen who had been living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He fell ill about a month earlier and was treated at several hospitals in Congo, the ministry says, then travelled by road to Kampala and boarded Jambojet flight 8523 to Nairobi, arriving at 1:10 p.m. on Saturday, Oct 3.

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said the patient went through routine public health screening at the port health and immigration desks at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. He was taken to Nairobi Hospital, where he was isolated. Kenya’s National Virology Reference Laboratory and the Kenya Medical Research Institute independently confirmed Bundibugyo Ebola. He received supportive care and died. Kenya’s Ministry of Health gives the date as Oct 6. WHO’s Director-General and the BBC say he died on Monday, Oct 5.

By Oct 7 the ministry had identified 57 contacts. Ten have been accounted for and quarantined at the National Police Service Hospital in Nairobi, and the rest are still being traced. Its first count, on Oct 6, listed 28 contacts among family members and health workers, plus 23 passengers and four crew from the flight. Duale says Kenya is “not experiencing an Ebola outbreak,” and the ministry urges people to stay vigilant without panic.

The questions are about the net. Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya told the BBC the man left Buta in northern Congo, drove to Kisangani, flew to Beni, drove into Uganda and then flew to Nairobi. “What are symptoms he was presenting? Why was he not detected?” he asked. Kenya’s Director-General for Health, Patrick Amoth, told the BBC the patient may have passed screening after taking medication that masked his symptoms. Dennis Miskellah of Kenya’s main doctors’ union told the BBC he had seen “lapses” at border points and at the main airport.

In Congo, WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Oct 7 that the outbreak has reached 8,665 confirmed cases and 4,178 confirmed deaths, with clear signs of slowing in some areas and continued growth in others, including new hotspots near the border with South Sudan. He commended Kenya for reporting the case promptly and said WHO advises against blanket travel or trade restrictions. “Transparency should be rewarded, not punished.”