NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan authorities on Tuesday confirmed the country's first imported Ebola case from Congo, making Kenya the latest country affected by the fast-moving outbreak.
Health Minister Aden Duale said a Kenyan citizen who arrived in the country on Saturday from Congo via its neighbor Uganda had been isolated and treated at Nairobi Hospital, where he tested positive for the Ebola virus and died late Monday.
Ebola is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.
The current outbreak was declared in mid-May, months after it had been spreading in a remote part of eastern Congo. At least 8,400 cases have been recorded, including over 4,000 deaths, according to government data, making it the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease in history.
Kenya had never had an outbreak of Ebola, according to the Kenya Medical Research Institute.
The country hosts a United States-funded isolation center for American citizens exposed to Ebola to quarantine for 21 days before traveling back to the U.S. The isolation facility faced legal battles and deadly protests by locals who feared it was exposing them to the virus.
Dozens of contacts have either been identified or are being traced
Kenya is the fourth country to record an Ebola case in the current outbreak, which was declared in eastern Congo in mid-May. Uganda has recorded 20 cases and France one. Before Kenya reported its case, there had been no active cases outside Congo since Uganda declared its outbreak over in late August.
Health authorities in Kenya have placed the country's border points on high alert and are monitoring for possible additional cases.
Duale said 28 contacts, including family members and health workers who cared for the patient, had been identified. Another 23 passengers who traveled on the same flight from Uganda were being traced.
He said the patient had been living in Congo for the past seven years and fell ill about a month ago. He was treated at various hospitals before traveling by road to Kampala, where he boarded a flight to Nairobi, arriving on Saturday afternoon.
The contacts will remain in isolation for 21 days and will be released after testing negative for the virus, the ministry’s director, Patrick Amoth, said.
The patient’s relatives later took him in a private vehicle to Nairobi Hospital, where he was immediately isolated. He will be buried within 24 hours in accordance with recommended public safety protocols.
The minister said Kenya had tested 267 samples at five laboratories across the country since May before this first case was detected.
Ebola outbreak in Congo is spreading quickly in difficult conditions
In Congo, where the outbreak has spread to seven provinces, conditions are difficult. Responders have faced attacks on health teams, misinformation about the virus, a failure by locals to report symptoms and rebel violence that has limited access to treatment centers.
While cases have slowed in Ituri province, the epicenter, the outbreak is spreading in emerging hot spots in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.
“It is like fighting a megafire. Multiple outbreaks are developing at the same time, with varying intensity and in different locations,” Stéphanie Hoffmann with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said in a statement.
The World Health Organization has warned this could surpass the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which erupted over a decade ago and killed over 11,000 people in West Africa.
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Associated Press writer Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed.
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