Kenya confirms first Ebola case after patient dies in Nairobi

• Health minister Aden Duale confirmed Kenya’s first Ebola case on 6 October. The patient died at a Nairobi hospital late the previous night.¹
• Kenyan reports identify the infection as Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease; the patient’s sample reportedly tested positive at two laboratories.²
• The patient arrived from Kampala on 3 October. Officials said he had passed through routine screening at Nairobi’s airport before travelling to hospital.³
• Authorities listed 28 contacts and were separately pursuing 23 passengers and four crew members from the flight.²

The patient, a Kenyan citizen, had travelled overland from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Kampala, then flew to Nairobi on Jambojet flight 8523. He was driven from the airport to Nairobi Hospital by a relative and a friend. There, he was first isolated in the Accident and Emergency department, then moved to the hospital’s isolation facility. Duale said he died on 5 October while receiving supportive treatment.²³

Local reports say the man had fallen ill about a month earlier and received treatment at several hospitals in the DRC. At Nairobi Hospital, he had fever, chills, fatigue, weakness, muscle pain and a sore throat, among other symptoms. NTV Kenya reported that samples tested positive at both the National Virology Reference Laboratory and the Kenya Medical Research Institute. The reports do not publish laboratory records or specify the test method.²

The 28 listed contacts included family members and health workers who cared for him. The flight passengers and crew were a separate group: officials said they were tracing those travellers and had prepared quarantine arrangements for people considered at risk. The Associated Press reported that contacts would be followed for 21 days.²¹

Kenyan reports also said one of 267 samples tested across five laboratories had returned positive. That tally does not establish that every identified contact had completed testing or follow-up. The reports reviewed establish no second Ebola case in Kenya.²

The case was reported as imported from the DRC, where an outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain was ongoing. The patient’s route through Uganda and arrival on a commercial flight widened the tracing effort beyond his family and hospital carers.¹⁴

Footnotes

1. Associated Press, “Kenya confirms first Ebola case imported from Congo after patient dies in Nairobi”. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. NTV Kenya, “Kenya’s first Ebola patient dies at a Nairobi hospital”. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. Citizen Digital, “Kenya confirms first case of Ebola as patient from DRC dies”. ↩ ↩²

4. The Guardian, “Kenya confirms first Ebola case as virus ‘surges’ in DR Congo province”. ↩