Kenya has recorded the first Ebola case in its history: a Kenyan man who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a large outbreak has been under way since May, died in a Nairobi hospital on Monday. Health officials are now working to find everyone he came into contact with, and the case has set off a pointed debate about how well the region's border screening is working.
A long trip with no alarm raised
According to the World Health Organization's representative in Kenya, the man flew into Nairobi from Uganda on Oct. 3 and went straight to a hospital, where he later died. The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Kaseya, told the BBC that the patient had been sick for about a month. In that time, Kaseya said, he traveled from the northern Congolese city of Buta to Kisangani, flew to Beni, drove into Uganda and then flew on to Kenya, all without being flagged.
A Kenyan health ministry official, Patrick Amoth, suggested the man may have gotten through screening because medication masked his symptoms. Kaseya made a related point: border checks in the region rely largely on temperature readings, and there is no quick Ebola test available at crossings. Uganda's health ministry said the man spent less than 24 hours there in transit and had a normal temperature when he left.
Dennis Miskellah, a representative of Kenya's main doctors' union, told the BBC that he and many health workers were not surprised, saying he had seen lapses at land borders and at the country's main airport. He also warned that screening depends heavily on travelers honestly reporting symptoms, which stigma around the disease can discourage.
Tracing the contacts
The BBC reported that 10 contacts have been quarantined and officials are trying to trace 57 others. WHO's Kenya representative, Dr. Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo, told UN News that about 10 of the man's relatives are in quarantine, some of whom came forward on their own, and that 21 health workers who treated him have been contacted. The government is also working with the airline to reach roughly 23 passengers and four crew members from his flight. So far, no other infections have been reported.
Kimambo said the next several days are critical, given an incubation period she described as two to eight days, and urged people not to panic but to seek care promptly if they feel unwell. President William Ruto's spokesman said more than 650,000 travelers have been screened and 267 samples tested since Congo's outbreak began, and four major hospitals have been designated to treat Ebola patients.
A rare and deadly strain
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, a relatively uncommon strain with no approved vaccine or treatment, though trials are under way. The BBC reports that more than 4,000 people have died of Ebola in Congo this year, making it the second-deadliest outbreak on record. Ebola spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.