Duale: Kenya has no Ebola outbreak, case was imported

Speaking during an interview with NTV on Wednesday, Duale maintained that the case does not amount to an Ebola outbreak in Kenya, describing it as an imported case that health authorities are working to contain.

According to the CS, the patient was initially infected in Eburu in northwestern DRC, where he first sought treatment.

He later travelled to Beni before proceeding by road to Kinshasa and subsequently flying to Kampala on October 1.

Duale said the patient purchased a ticket to Kenya on October 2 but did not disclose that he was ill while travelling.

"When patients are buying a ticket, they declare any illness. This patient never declared when he was boarding the plane in Congo or in Uganda and when he was coming to Kenya, he was under heavy medication and was not detected," Duale said.

Upon arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), the patient was picked up by a relative and a friend in a Toyota Fielder, registration KDG 699Z, and taken to Nairobi Hospital.

He was initially isolated in the hospital's emergency room before being transferred to its East Wing isolation facility, which Duale said had previously been used during the Covid-19 pandemic and has more than 145 beds.

The CS said medical examinations established that the patient had fever, intense fatigue, weakness, muscle pain, painful swallowing, a sore throat and bleeding beneath the skin at an injection site.

Doctors subsequently suspected a viral haemorrhagic fever and collected samples for testing, which returned positive for Ebola.

"He had been sick for a month and his organs were failing. Unfortunately, despite the supportive treatment, the patient died on Monday," Duale said.

The government announced the country's first confirmed case and death from Bundibugyo virus disease on Tuesday.

Duale said contact tracing and quarantine efforts have since been expanded as health authorities seek to identify everyone who may have interacted with the patient during his journey and after his arrival in Kenya.

According to the CS, 11 family members and 23 health workers have been placed under quarantine, alongside four Jambojet crew members.

He added that authorities are also tracing and quarantining other people who may have interacted with the patient, including Jambojet cleaners and immigration officers who handled his entry into the country.

The government has maintained that Kenya is dealing with an imported case rather than a domestic outbreak, while urging the public to remain vigilant as surveillance and contact tracing continue.