NAIROBI — Kenya has confirmed its first case of Ebola from the outbreak that started in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May.
A Kenyan citizen who had been living in Congo entered Nairobi on Saturday and died Monday night at a Nairobi hospital, Kenyan Health Minister Aden Duale told reporters Tuesday. The patient fell ill about a month ago and had been treated in several hospitals in Congo before traveling by road to Kampala, Uganda, Duale said, and then flying to Kenya.
Kenya’s Health Ministry said 28 contacts including the victim’s family and health workers exposed to him were being traced and that 23 passengers and four crew members on the flight were also being traced.
It is not clear how he managed to travel from Congo to Uganda to Kenya while unwell. The three countries have bumped up Ebola surveillance across their borders since May.
Kenya is the fourth country to confirm a case in the outbreak that has infected more than 8,000 people in Congo and killed more than 4,000. Uganda reported 20 cases but was declared Ebola-free in August, and there had been no active cases outside Congo since then. France had reported a case in June, a doctor who had traveled to Congo on a humanitarian mission.
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