What to know about Kenya’s first Ebola case and how officials are responding

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s first Ebola case, a patient who travelled for weeks by road and air through three countries without being detected until he arrived in Nairobi, has raised questions about border control and how to trace the virus across countries.

The patient, a Kenyan man, had been living in Congo for seven years and started feeling ill a month ago. He had traveled by road to Uganda, before boarding a flight to the Kenyan capital on Saturday. There, he tested positive for the Ebola virus in a hospital and died Monday.

The Africa CDC Director-General, Jean Kaseya, told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday that all stakeholders need to ask themselves how one case could have driven and flown to so many places without anyone noticing.

“We need to ensure that at point of entry, we have a strong surveillance system in place,” he said.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.

Officials are trying to trace anyone who came into contact with the patient

The Kenyan man drove for hours by road within Congo and across the border into Uganda. He boarded a local flight while in Congo, and it is unclear if he used any other forms of public transport.

Authorities have looked at the flight manifest of the other flight he took from Kampala, Uganda, to Nairobi, and passengers and crew onboard have been added to the contact list.

They’re also looking to trace workers who cleaned the plane after it landed, as well as passengers who traveled on the same plane subsequently.

Health Minister Aden Duale told journalists on Wednesday that contact tracing was ongoing and that the number of contacts had risen to 57, with 10 already quarantined.

“Even the people who cleaned that aircraft after it landed on Saturday, they are part of the people we are tracing. The immigration and the customs officials who served that patient will also be part of the contact tracing,” he said.

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Africa CDC’s Kaseya acknowledged it is a challenge. He said that the Kenyan man had not come up in existing contact lists in Congo.

“Before saying that the outbreak is under control, you need to ensure that you have a contact list where all cases are coming from,” he said.

Questions raised about how the patient traveled through Uganda

It’s also unclear how the patient was able to cross into Uganda, which has closed its border with Congo because of the Ebola outbreak.

Alan Kasujja, executive director of the Ugandan government’s media center, dismissed the question, saying only that journalists should instead ask Kenya how the man was able to bypass surveillance at its airport.

“Leave Uganda out of this conversation. We don’t have Ebola here,” he wrote on X.

Two of the man’s journeys were by air, while the rest were by road, covering long distances and passing through various towns and cities. On arrival in Nairobi, the patient underwent port health screening but his symptoms were not detected. He then boarded a private vehicle to Nairobi Hospital, where he was isolated and later tested positive for Ebola.

When asked how the patient was able to travel through three countries undetected, Kenya’s Director-General for Health, Patrick Amoth, said on Wednesday that a meeting was scheduled with officials from Congo and Uganda and the Africa CDC to investigate what transpired during the patient’s journey.

Kenya has been boosting its border controls

Kenya’s Health Ministry has heightened surveillance at border entry points and created an Ebola hotline for citizens to report symptoms related to Ebola.

The country has also designated five health facilities with a total of 241 isolation beds to manage patients, and is working to increase this capacity.

The ministry said the country has enough supplies, including personal protective equipment, and has mobilized resources since the outbreak started in May in Congo.

The ministry added that it had designated a specific gate at the country’s main airport for passengers travelling from 10 countries located within the outbreak’s epicenter.