Kenya reported its first ever Ebola case and death on Tuesday after a citizen who had lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo for seven years tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain and died in Nairobi.
Zoom in: Health Minister Aden Duale said the man fell ill about a month ago, was treated at several hospitals in Congo, then traveled by road to Kampala and flew to Nairobi on Saturday. He passed routine airport screening before a relative took him to Nairobi Hospital.
- He was moved to an isolation facility built during the Covid-19 pandemic, where he developed fever, chills, muscle pain, painful swallowing and bleeding under the skin, and died at 11:30 p.m. Monday.
- A senior ministry official told the BBC the medication he was taking may have masked his symptoms at the airport.
By the numbers: Officials have identified 28 contacts, including family members and health workers, and are tracing 23 passengers and four crew members from his flight. The World Health Organization counts 4,114 deaths among 8,544 cases in Congo, the largest outbreak ever recorded in the country where Ebola was discovered in 1976.
The backstory: Congo declared the outbreak in May. It spread to Uganda, which recorded 20 cases and two deaths before the WHO declared it Ebola-free in August. Bundibugyo is a rarer strain with no approved vaccine or treatment, and Médecins Sans Frontières says North Kivu province now accounts for about 40% of new cases, up from 24% at the end of August.
- "It is like fighting a megafire," said Stephanie Hoffmann, who runs the MSF treatment centre in Butembo, per The Guardian.
What they're saying: Duale urged Kenyans "not to panic, as all systems are in place to mitigate the spread of the disease," and asked health workers to be "extra vigilant" with infection controls regardless of what they are treating.
Why it matters: A case that cleared airport screening and reached a major hub city is the scenario outbreak planners fear most. Nairobi is East Africa's busiest air connection, and the strain in question has no vaccine to fall back on.
