Nairobi, Oct 6. (dpa/GNA) – Kenya has seen its first case of the Ebola virus in the current outbreak in the region, Health Minister Aden Duale said on Tuesday, after the patient died in a Nairobi hospital.
The man, who had lived and worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo for seven years, had contracted the highly contagious Bundibugyo strain of the virus and died on Monday evening, Duale said in a televised address. He fell ill about a month ago before travelling overland to Uganda, where he boarded a flight to Kenya on Saturday.
After arriving, his relatives took him directly to a hospital in Nairobi, where he died. According to the authorities, he showed symptoms of fever, chills, severe fatigue, muscle pain and bleeding beneath the skin.
The Bundibugyo virus, which has been spreading in the Congo for months, is particularly difficult to contain because there is currently neither a vaccine nor a specific treatment for this strain. It can also easily be mistaken for illnesses such as malaria during the early stages.
Wessam Mankoula, director of emergencies at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said on Friday that the current outbreak was “the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever.”
According to the Congolese health authorities, 4,148 people in the country have now died from the disease.
Kenyan health authorities say they had so far identified 28 contacts, including relatives of the deceased and medical staff who treated him. Authorities are also searching for the 23 passengers and four crew members who were on the flight.
Uganda, which declared itself Ebola-free at the end of August, could also be affected because the patient travelled through the country.
GNA